Joey's Story
by VashTheStampede169
Summary: Joey finds himself in what appears to be the future. Gathering his friends who have been radically changed they fight to survive, and escape this new world. Some romance revealed at last, not yaoi (sorry!).
1. Chapter 1 Arrivals and Conflict

Well, this is my first fanfic. Usually all my writing is stuff like scripts or short stories, but I figured "Why not?" and decided to actually write something. This is an idea I've been kicking around for a little while, and hopefully it'll all work out in the end.

  
  


I suppose I have to put a disclaimer in here or something. To be brief, I own nothing in this story except the story itself. The people, the places, the game, the cards, none of it is mine. Well, I make up what happens in the duels, but nothing else really. Well, and a few choice characters, those are mine too. But that's it.

  
  
  
  


Joey Wheeler's eyes snapped open and he quickly pulled himself off the dusty ground. He patted himself down to make sure he had not been injured. His clothes were a little dusty and his Duel Disk had been scuffed, but otherwise okay. He patted his jacket pocket and was relieved to find his duelling deck still there. He looked up and observed his surroundings. There was no mistaking it was Domino City, but things certainly did not look the same. Buildings looked as if they were some futuristic science fiction movie, but also appeared damaged and badly maintained. He took a few tentative steps into the city streets. There were a handful of people, but many were sitting around in something of a daze. They paid no attention at all to Joey, which eased his tension a little. Rounding a corner he saw something he had definitely not expected; two people were engaged in a duel. 

  
  


He jogged closer but kept his distance so he would not disturb them. He recognized one monster as being Opticlops, but did not recognize the other. It looked somewhat like a vampire with large, spikes wings. The controller of the vampire monster spoke then.

  
  


"Okay Vampire Lord, destroy Opticlops!"

  
  


The Vampire Lord's eyes rose to meet it's victim. It snarled, folded it's wings around itself, then vanished in black smoke. In the blink of an eye, the Vampire Lord was behind Opticlops, it's shining silver claws embedded in the golem's back. With a groan it fell to the ground before exploding into polygons and fading away.

  
  


"That's the end of your pathetic monster." The man spoke, "Now Vampire Lord's special ability makes you discard your last monster card from your deck. You have no more cards to draw, therefore you lose!"

  
  


The other man looked crestfallen, "But, I can't lose! I bet the last of my food on the outcome of this duel! Please!"

  
  


"Hey, these are hard times. You should have known the risks before you challenged me! Now give it to me or I will call the Judgemasters!" His finger hovered over a button on his duel disk, eagerly awaiting justification to press it.

  
  


"No, please don't! I will give you all I have."

  
  


Joey refused to watch any longer. He ran forward and gave the man a forceful push. He staggered back, being considerably smaller than Joey, but managed to keep his balance.

  
  


"Now wait just a minute!" He shouted, "You can't just take this man's food! He needs it a lot more than you do, by the looks of it!" Looking the man up and down, he was dressed in what looked to be very expensive clothing. "Besides, you can't duel for anything other than cards! What's the deal?"

  
  


The man growled and tensed all his muscles. "The deal, you fool, is that he wanted to duel me for food and he lost! It is of no concern to me whether he could afford to lose or not, the fact is he had no chance in the first place and he should have realized it from the start! Now get lost!"

  
  


"I don't think so. You're just a snobbish bully who needs to be taught what it feels like to lose for a change! I challenge you to a duel! If I win, you have to give back what you took from this guy!"

  
  


"Bold words, whelp, but what do I get if you lose?"

  
  


Joey's eyes widened as he realized he had nothing to ante in this duel himself. All he had was his duelling deck and the clothes on his back. "How about I give you my entire duelling deck if I lose, which I'm warning you now will not happen." Well, if he did wind up losing, he might as well not lose his clothing while he was at it.

  
  


"How do I know your deck is not full of throwaways? I could be wasting my time altogether duelling you."

  
  


"If you're that worried about it why don't you just chicken out right now, ya loser?"

  
  


"Silence! Prepare yourself!"

  
  


"Duel!"

"Duel!"

  
  


Their duel disks snapped into duel mode and they shuffled their decks and slid them into place. Their life point counters rose to 8000.

  
  


"Wait, we start with 8000 life points?" Joey thought, confused. "I'm used to starting with 4000. I hope there aren't any other weird surprises waiting for me." His mind wandered back to that Vampire Lord he saw when he first arrived. "I have to stay on my toes."

  
  


"All right, I'm going to let you go first since you look completely clueless already!"

  
  


Joey decided to ignore that remark and observed his hand. "Man, I have no idea what to play against this guy. It seems that there were more cards made while we were out at the Battle City finals. Come to think of it, I don't even know how much time has passed since then. Well, better not think about it too much right now. Swordsman of Landstar in defense mode should do until I get a better idea of what I'm up against. I'll set my Skull Dice too."

  
  


Joey slid the two cards into place. "I'll set one card face down, and this in defence mode!" The air before him shimmered and the two face down cards appeared as holograms. "Now it's your turn."

  
  


The man laughed and drew his card. "This will be over in no time, just you wait!" He set four cards face down. "No monsters for me this turn. I don't think I'll be needing any to put you down. I end my turn."

  
  


"Has anyone told you that you talk big for such a runt? Keep your yap shut and I'll teach you a thing or two!" Joey slid his Graceful Dice card in next to his Skull Dice. "I think I'll start by reminding you of a basic tip. Don't rely on your trap cards so much, because you never know if your opponent will give you the opportunity to use them, and I don't intend to! I'll sacrifice my Swordsman of Landstar to summon Jinzo!"

  
  


The Swordsman rose from his card briefly before vanishing, replaced by a more sinister looking one. The air shimmered as the humanoid machine appeared. "With Jinzo on the field, your traps are completely useless! Jinzo, attack his life points directly!"

  
  


With that, Jinzo rose it's hands and unleashed waves of white energy at it's target. The man yelped, he was clearly not expecting Joey to get a hit in so easily. His life points dropped to 5600.

  
  


"Swordsman of Landstar? Jinzo? How did you get your hands on such antiqued cards? Did your grandmother teach you to duel or what?" Through his front, he was clearly very nervous, and Joey realized that perhaps more time had passed than he thought if his two new cards were considered old. "Never mind, they will be mine soon anyway!" He drew his card, then made his move. "I will play Book of Moon, forcing your Jinzo face down into defence mode!" A large greenish book appeared and opened it's ancient pages. Unrecognizable symbols were projected onto Jinzo and the monster disappeared, leaving a face down card behind. "Now I shall summon the Witch of the Black Forest in attack mode!"

  
  


Joey turned his head and scratched his cheek lightly. "Huh, that's strange, it looks like your Witch isn't strong enough to beat my Jinzo. That was a pretty bone-headed move if you ask me."

  
  


"You will see who will be calling whom a bonehead in a minute, you... uh... bonehead!" Joey rolled his eyes. "Because now I activate Torrential Tribute! I can activate this card when either of us summons a monster, and it shall send both of our monsters to the graveyard! With your Jinzo face down, you are powerless to stop it!" The ground began to glow and swirl with blue energy, and it quickly sucked the face down Jinzo and the Witch into it's abyss before vanishing. "And because my Witch went to the graveyard, I am able to bring a monster out my deck into my hand! Now, I end my turn."

  
  


Joey's eye twitched with frustration. "What the heck is wrong with you? The only monster you've played so far you destroyed with your own trap! What kind of duelist are you?"

  
  


"Soon you will realize the extent of my expertise, soon indeed."

  
  


"Yeah? Well I'm not gonna stick around and die of old age before you even get a hit in! I play Gearfried the Iron Knight!" A knight wearing thick, iron armour appeared and took a fighting stance. "Attack him now!" With a mighty leap, the knight came down hard with it's iron shield onto it's target. The man fell to his knees from the force, his life points dropping to 3800."

  
  


"What's up with ya? You claim to be all that, then here you are with half your life points gone! Man, I'm just to hot for you to handle!" Joey puffed out his chest with confidence. "I'll set this card face down and end my turn. I want to get this over with soon as possible."

  
  


The man rose to his feet, his eyes focussed down at his feet. "No, my unworthy adversary, this is where it ends. When you played Gearfried, you sealed your fate."

  
  


"Excuse me, but I don't think you've been paying attention. My Gearfried totally creamed you and from the looks of it there's not a lot you can do about it!"

  
  


"Oh but you're wrong. You see, you aren't the only one with the ancient and rare Gearfried the Iron Knight. In fact, you are the only one I have ever seen with one, aside from myself. You playing it instead of me has only hastened your destruction. I have a combo that uses Gearfried in a way that your feeble mind could never comprehend. I play the Royal Magical Library!"

  
  


The air behind the man shimmered, and a wall of books appeared behind him. There were three books on pedestals standing before him. "You see, every time one of us plays a magic card, the power of one of these books will activate. Once all three books are active, they allow me to draw a card." Joey nodded thoughtfully, paying careful attention to everything he was saying. "Now, I shall use this equipment magic card, Butterfly Dagger Elma, and I shall target your Gearfried!" The Dagger appeared and hovered towards Gearfried, and one of the books upon the pedestal began to glow softly.

  
  


"You moron, Gearfried automatically destroys any equipment cards you try to play on him! What in the world are you thinking!" Gearfried reached up with his hand and crushed the Dagger within it's iron grip, and seemed to smirk at it's handiwork.

  
  


"Oh, I am fully aware of Gearfried's ability. I am also aware of the Butterfly Dagger's second function, which returns it to my hand when it is destroyed!" He played the Dagger again and like before, another book lit up and Gearfried crushed the Dagger. Joey's eyes widened as his plan became clear. "If he keeps that up," Joey thought, "He can draw cards over and over until he gets whatever he wants!"

  
  


Once his hand had filled to 25 or so cards, he looked satisfied. "Now, I can begin my attack! I'll first activate the magic card Raigeki!" Joey snapped out of the daze he entered waiting for the man to stop drawing cards. His eyes refocused just in time to watch his monster be struck by lightning then explode in his face. "Now, I'll activate Ultimate Offering! This will allow me to summon any extra number of monsters I want for 500 life points each! His life points dropped from 3800 to 300 as he summoned three Pyramid Turtles, Don Zaloog and Mystic Tomato, then sacrificed the Tomato and Zaloog to summon Shadow Ghoul and Vampire Lord.

  
  


"It's that Vampire Lord thing!" Joey thought, feeling the panic begin to rise. "I don't even know what it does, much less how to beat it, to say nothing of what I'm gonna do about all those other monsters! I think I'm in trouble..."

  
  
  
  


"Are you quite ready to surrender now? You can clearly see you have no chance to win!"

  
  


"Joey Wheeler doesn't surrender! You may have a lot of fancy cards, but fancy cards don't cut it when you duel me!"

  
  


"You'll eat those words! Attack!"

  
  


With that, all five monsters leapt towards Joey. Moving quickly, Joey tapped the key above one of his face down cards. "I'll activate Scapegoat! These little guys should buy me the time I need to wipe the floor with ya!" Joey shouted as four little fluffy goats appeared in time to be destroyed.

  
  


"Unfortunately for you, your dusty old Scapegoat card only gives you four defenders, while I have five attackers! Vampire Lord, attack him directly!" With that, the Vampire Lord vanished in a burst of black smoke, like before, and a moment later Joey found himself with a vampire-like monster grabbing him from behind and biting his neck.

  
  


Joey refused to cry out in pain as his life points dropped to 6000. He opened his blurring eyes to see the Vampire Lord grab a card from his deck. Joey blinked the tears away to see it was his Time Wizard. "Oh man, looks like that freakshow is able to grab a card from my deck when it attacks me! Not only that, it's grabbed one of the cards that I could have used to win this!"

  
  


"Can you feel the despair beginning to set in?" The man said as he set a card face down. "It is only a matter of time now."

  
  


"How many times do I have to tell ya to keep your mouth shut before ya listen, ya creep!" Joey drew his card and his eyes lit up. "This should keep ya from attacking me for a while, I'll play Panther Warrior!" Joey sighed with relief as the indigo armoured feline appeared before him, brandishing it's sword. "Even though I have to sacrifice a monster to attack with Panther Warrior, his attack his high enough that he won't be able to damage me until I summon another monster and win!"

  
  


"That's all? A cat with a pretty toy is all you have to defend yourself with? You are more desperate than I thought. Obviously you do not know about Vampire Lord's other special ability..."

  
  


Joey didn't want to find out what this other ability was. "I'll play my own Raigeki, destroying all of your monsters which includes your lousy Vampire! So much for it's other abilities!"

  
  


"On the contrary, my easily panicked adversary, you just triggered it."

  
  


"I what?"

  
  


To Joey's horror, the Vampire Lord appeared in a burst of black smoke, right where it had once stood before the Raigeki's magic lightning destroyed it. "You see, whenever you destroy Vampire Lord with a card's effect, I am able to summon it from the graveyard once again at the beginning of my turn!"

  
  


"You dirty rat! You tricked me into destroying it!"

  
  


"And you were fool enough to fall for it. Don't blame me for your own mistakes. Here's a card you may remember, the Butterfly Dagger Elma! This will give my Vampire Lord an extra 300 attack points, enough to crush your pathetic Panther! Go Vampire Lord!"

  
  


With that, Panther Warrior was no more. 300 life points as well as Joey's Graverobber card were both also gone with it.

  
  


"I won't give up! I'll summon Zombyra the Dark! Attack now!"

  
  


"Sorry, but my Mirror Force trap card begs to differ! Now, attack!"

  
  


Joey's life points were down to 3700, and his Shield and Sword magic card was lost.

  
  


"I'll use Dark Hole to destroy your Vampire! Now, I'll summon Little Winguard!"

  
  


"I have yet another Torrential Tribute waiting just for you! Now, attack him Vampire Lord!"

  
  


Joey had only 1700 life points left, and now didn't have his Sasuke Samurai to help him either.

  
  


"I'll, uh, play this face down..."

  
  


"And I shall place Fairy Meteor Crush on my Vampire Lord! Attack!"

  
  


With that, Joey's Baby Dragon was gone, and with it 1300 life points and his Polymerization.

  
  


"Man, I think I'm done for." Joey thought to himself. "Nearly all of my best cards are gone, and I'm out of ideas." Joey drew his card, it was Monster Reborn. "Hm, not bad. There are a few cards I could bring back with this. I could try Jinzo or Zombyra, but who knows what else that creep may have ready? No, I have to make it look like I'm totally out of it, don't know what I'm doing. I'll have to bring back something that he wouldn't consider a threat."

  
  


"I'll play Monster Reborn!" Joey watched nervously as the man's hand hovered over his face down card, readying himself to use it. "And I'll bring back Swordsman of Landstar in defence mode!" With that, the tiny warrior appeared and raised it's shield up defiantly.

  
  


"That pathetic thing? It would seem that your feeble mind has snapped!"

  
  


"Oh no, what have I done? I can't believe I just did that! What a huge mistake I just made! Boy am I lame!" Joey silently wished he had skipped fewer drama classes at school, because he sure didn't sound too convincing.

  
  


"What a simpleton you are! I can't believe how desperate you have become!"

  
  


"You only have to believe it for a little bit longer." Joey thought to himself. "Oh no, that didn't help at all, I'm going to play Giant Trunade to try to fix it." In a gust of wind, all the trap cards were returned to their owner's hands. "Uh oh, that didn't save me at all! I guess I am just too lame to duel properly! I'll set those cards back down again." Joey's could feel his face turn red hot. "This is embarrassing! I don't know which is worse, how dumb I sound or the fact that he's eating it all up."

  
  


"Hm, I see now that I have indeed wasted my time duelling you. Your cards are old and outdated, frankly I don't know how you got your hands on them in the first place. Rest assured though, they will enjoy their new home once I destroy you! Attack now, Vampire Lord!"

  
  


Time seemed to slow down for Joey as the Vampire Lord folded it's wings and prepared to disappear and attack. Joey quickly tapped the buttons over his two face down cards, activating them.

  
  


"Graceful Dice and Skull Dice! I need at least a four on both to stop your attack, and two sixes to win!" The dice bounced and skittered across the ground. Vampire Lord vanished and reappeared behind Swordsman of Landstar, and both the monster and it's controller was absolutely shocked to see the tiny warrior had stopped the Vampire's claws with it's small shield. It leapt upwards and slammed it's shield down hard on the Vampire's head, and it staggered back to it's controller and fell to the ground.

  
  


"WHAT? I don't understand! How did that happen!" Joey pointed at the two large dice sitting at his feet, both showing sixes.

  
  


"My monster's defence was raised by 600, and your monster's attack was lowered by 600. That makes a 400 point difference between them. Since you only had 300 life points left, you lose.

  
  


The Vampire Lord bowed apologetically to it's controller before vanishing into thin air, along with the dice and a positively beaming Swordsman of Landstar.

  
  


"Impossible! How could a nobody with an outdated deck beat me? I assure you, this is not over!" The man turned to run before Joey called out to him. "Hey, we had a deal. If I won you return what you took! Or perhaps I should call the Judgemasters down, hm?" Joey's imitated what the man had done earlier when he threatened the poor man. Thankfully he fell for Joey's bluff, because Joey didn't even know who the Judgemasters were, much less how to call them, and a sack of food was tossed to him.

  
  


Joey hefted it over his shoulder. He took a look around and saw the poor man from earlier hiding behind an overturned car.

  
  


"Hey, there ya are! Come on out, I promise I won't bite or anything."

  
  


"Please sir," the man begged "I cannot pay you for your services, and it is clear I cannot defeat you in a duel, I have a family at home who needs this to live and-"

  
  


Joey cut the man off. "Hey hey, take it easy there, man. I don't want some sorta reward or nothing. I just wanted to set things right. Ya shouldn't let bullies pick on you. If you do, they'll just keep walking all over you. Believe me, I know all about that sorta thing."

  
  


The man looked quite relieved. "Thank you very much young sir, I am in your debt. Unless you have somewhere else to go I would like to invite you to my house, such as it is. A storm is on it's way, and I don't want you walking all alone in the middle of it. I insist!"

  
  


Joey considered for a moment, then decided it would not be the best idea to get his only set of clothes soaking wet. "Thanks a lot man. Lead the way."

  
  


They walked through alleys and in darkened passageways, around and around in what seemed to be like a suburban maze. "You're not from around here, are you?" The man asked after some time.

  
  


"No. Well, yes, but also not at the same time. It looks to me like I've been blown into the future or whatever, like some freaky science fiction movie. Heh, that's kinda farfetched sounding I know."

  
  


"Not as much as you think. I may not look it, but I am actually one of the best duel monsters researchers around. I can tell from the cards you used that you were probably a participant in the old Battle City Tournament, is that right?

  
  


"Hey yeah! That's incredible! What else can you tell me? What can you tell me about this place?"

  
  


"I can tell you that this is the city of Domino, as it stands now it isn't much of a city I know. If you tell me more about how you got here, I think I can tell you more about where you are.

  
  


Joey scratched his head. "Uh, okay I guess." Joey took a deep breath and tried to think. Images of people, friends. Tristan, Mai, Tea, Bakura, Yugi... the Battle City Tournament finals. Something about ancient magic and those Millennium Items. What was it exactly, something that made him almost not want to remember. He tried harder, and suddenly it was all as clear as day to him.

  
  
  
  


Well, that's that for now. More to come soon, I'll even continue it sooner if I get some reviews. In the following chapters I probably won't describe the duels at such lengths, unless it's important to. I'll also explain everything that happened before the story began (I like cliffhangers, but only if they go somewhere) Thanks for reading! Review please!


	2. Chapter 2 Past and Future

Chapter two begins as a flashback that was initiated in chapter one. Like it or not, Joey is going to have to be the spear-bearer for a little while. (That just means things will get explained to him so that both he and the readers understand what is happening)

  
  


I probably don't have to disclaim again, but to be safe, I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! or pretty much anything in this story, aside from a few characters.

  
  
  
  


Joey leaned against the railing aboard the giant KaibaCorp airship. A steady breeze blew past his face, a chilly reminder that he was still a very uncomfortable distance from the city below. He turned back towards the main deck, the sight of the city from higher up than he had ever been before was overwhelming to say the least. He took a few steps toward his friends, then stopped and observed them a moment. In the middle of their huddle stood Yugi, not the strange, imposing spirit of the puzzle he wore around his neck but the short, somewhat meek young man, looking proud as a peacock at the moment. He was eagerly showing off the three greatest duel monsters cards to ever be created which were now his prized possessions. He looked positively ecstatic, and with good reason. He had just claimed the title of champion of Battle City and, as Joey understood it, prevented some dark magic from ancient Egypt from destroying everything.

  
  


Joey walked towards the group, joining them in their celebration. Yugi looked up and grabbed him in an excited hug, a rather awkward situation given their height difference.

  
  


"Joey, I couldn't have made it without you! Your Red Eyes Black Dragon came through for me, just like you said it would!"

  
  


"Nah Yuug, this victory belongs to you, man. I'm sure you coulda found some other way to win without my card. You had to win it from that Rare Hunter in the first place, remember?

  
  


Mai clicked her tongue disapprovingly. "Now Joey, how rude of you. Your best friend is trying to share the best moment of his life with you and you act like a great big dork in front of him. I say give credit where credit is due, hun."

  
  


Tea chimed in from the back row. "Mai's right Joey, you deserve some thanks in this too. In fact, I think we all deserve a little pat on the back, wouldn't you say?"

  
  


Yugi nodded. "I definitely couldn't have made it without all you guys! Thank you all so much!" He fanned out his three Egyptian God cards for Joey to see.

  
  


Joey observed them intently for a moment. "It's hard to believe so much trouble, so much pain and worry was created by those three small cards. Such insignificant looking things, giving the worthy holders the power to control the Gods. It is unbelievable."

  
  


Everyone stared for a moment, either contemplating the ramifications of controlling the Gods with three slips of ink on paper, or wondering how those philosophical words came from the mouth of Joey Wheeler. Their thoughts were broken by the sound of a deep rumbling from somewhere nearby. Joey placed a hand over his stomach.

  
  


"Well, sounds to me like it's time for a victory feast! Come on guys!"

  
  


Tristan spoke up from behind Joey. "Man, you already ate nearly everything on this blimp. How do you expect us to have a feast when all we have left are a handful of crackers?"

  
  


Joey nonchalantly glanced over his shoulder. "Ah come on, I left more than that. There's plenty to get us home with full stomachs!"

  
  


"I doubt that. From your performance last time, it looked to me like only one of us had time to get a full stomach."

  
  


"Hey, I'm a growing boy ya know! That means I need my energy and that means I need plenty to eat! Now keep your mouth shut or I'll shut it for ya!"

  
  


"Bring it on, tough guy!"

  
  


Joey and Tristan began their little wrestling match when Seto Kaiba, who had been sitting alone in the shadows, spoke up. "Both of you stop that right now or I'll have you both thrown off the aircraft! Believe me when I say at this altitude you would live just long enough to regret invoking my wrath." Joey and Tristan froze in place and stared. "That's better. Now if I could take a moment from your little celebration, Ishizu and that stowaway have something to talk about." He cast a cold glance at Shadi. "You're lucky I don't toss you off with these two nincompoops for sneaking aboard my ship." Kaiba stomped off back towards the shadow he was leaving under and crossed his arms.

  
  


Tristan and Joey stood up. "What's his problem?" Tristan asked, dusting himself off. "I dunno. Sore loser, I guess." Joey replied, straightening out his shirt.

  
  


"Thank you all." Ishizu spoke. "What I have to say concerns you most of all, Yugi Moto and Bakura Ryou. Aboard this ship at this very moment are all seven Millennium Items, as well as all three God cards. We must soon invoke a spell to..." Joey stopped listening. Whenever talk of those Millennium items and magic powers began, Joey could never keep his focus anyway. 

  
  


Joey looked over to where Kaiba was standing, shaking his head and mumbling about magic being nonsense. Near him, but far away enough they did not engage in a fight of their own, Marik sat on the deck, staring despondently at the floor panels. They both had a similar look on their faces. 

  
  


"Hm, come to think of it, those two have had a rough day." Joey thought. "They both just suffered some heavy defeats and lost their God cards to Yugi. I would feel worse about it if those stinking rats didn't deserve every minute of their little pity parties. Serves 'em right." Joey nodded, resolved that he would never feel bad for either of those two for even a minute.

  
  


Just then, a yell from behind him turned the collective attention of the three. Joey turned around to see Bakura grasping his Millennium Ring firmly in his hands.

  
  


"You fools! Do you really think I would give up my Millennium item's power so willingly? I would sooner die!"

  
  


"You fool!" Shadi shouted back. "Return that item immediately or the spell we cast will have unforseeable results!"

  
  


"Never! I will not have the magic of any of the Millennium items dispelled, least of all my Millennium Ring! I will banish every one of you to the Shadow Realm!" With that, his Ring began to glow with a sinister amber and washed light over all those present. Joey watched in horror as the airship, the sky, the city itself began to darken and vanish from sight, shrouded by a fog that seemed to penetrate his body and chill his soul. The six gathered Millennium items started to glow white hot, the air around them blistering with heat. Bakura's Ring apparently did the same as he dropped it and clutched his hands in pain, the Ring rolled towards the other items and fell with a thud. The golden treasures started to vibrate violently. Their energy rebounding off one another, forcing them in different directions, the oscillating noise they began generating pierced Joey's ears and he fell to the ground. The sweltering heat and the noise was unbearable. 

  
  


Somehow, over all this, Shadi's voice echoed from a distance loud and clear. "I am sorry my friends. I did not expect the spirit of the Millennium Ring to respond like this. I do not know what will be come of you, but Ishizu and I will do what we can to stop this and rescue you all."

  
  


"Patience, friends. Stay your courage and be strong! We will not abandon you. Marik! You must follow us as well, for you bear the ancient scriptures of the Pharaoh."

  
  


Despite what was happening, Marik managed to act like a spoiled brat and begrudgingly sauntered over to his sister's side. With that, the three disappeared into the shadows. One by one, Joey watched as his friends began disappearing too. Mai and Tristan vanished simultaneously, then Kaiba and Bakura. Yugi desperately threw himself on top of his hot, screaming Millennium puzzle before both vanished. Serenity ran towards Joey, her mouth screaming his name but her voice drowned by the chaos surrounding them, then vanished. Joey suddenly felt his body being lifted by an unseen force, then all of the pain and noise faded from his consciousness, and his vision turned white.

  
  


Suddenly Joey was dropped onto the hard, dusty ground. He stood up and recognized the city before him as Domino, albeit run-down and more sophisticated.

  
  


"Excuse me, Joey? Are you okay?"

  
  


Joey shook his head. He looked about, disoriented. He was in what appeared to be an apartment room, badly maintained at that, and a poor looking man was holding his shoulders looking very worried. He gave his head another quick shake to clear it and he regained his wits.

  
  


"That's it." Joey said aloud. "That's how I got here. It was that creepy spirit in Bakura's Millennium Ring. It was those Millennium items! Oh man, I knew I should have paid more attention to what they were doing over there!"

  
  


"Mister Wheeler, exactly what are you talking about?"

  
  


"You... How do you know my name? I never told it to you."

  
  


"Uhm, that's a good question. You... you said it during that duel you had!"

  
  


"True, but I'm thinking you know more than you're letting on, even now. I can see it in your eyes." Joey moved closer and stared the man in the eyes. "I know you, don't I?"

  
  


The man leapt back, startled. "No! No not at all! I don't know you at all, and you're talking nonsense! Milennium puzzles, dark magic, all of it! Pure and utter fairytales!"

  
  


"That's funny, I didn't mention any puzzles, or dark magic. I also know one bull-headed duelist who used to call them fairytales as well, and you look an awful lot like him. In fact, I could swear you're related." Joey took a step closer, and the man pulled back, apprehensively grasping what looked like a locket shaped like a duel monsters card. "Kaiba?"

  
  


The man sighed and turned his eyes downward. "Close, but not the Kaiba you're thinking of."

  
  


"Mokuba?"

  
  


"That's right. Big shock, I know."

  
  


"Man, am I glad to see a familiar face around here! Well, your face isn't all that familiar, but you know what I mean. Come on man, tell me, what's going on around here? This looks like Domino city but everything is different!"

  
  


Mokuba sighed and removed his ragged overcoat. His clothing beneath it was the outfit Seto Kaiba wore during the Duelist Kingdom tournament, though a bit ragged. "The question isn't where you are, Joey, it is when. We're about 25 years from the end of the Battle City tournament, when all you guys vanished before our eyes." Tears threatened to spill forth, but he held them back. "I was in the control room at the time, watching through the cameras. One minute you guys were all there, talking about those Millennium items. Then suddenly that Bakura guy went nuts, he grabbed that ring he always has and a weird fog appeared. A minute later it was gone, and so were all of you, including my brother. I haven't seen anyone since then. Until you came." Mokuba fell to his knees, quietly sobbing. 

  
  


"I just want my brother back. Everything has gone all wrong since then. I was the only heir to the Kaiba Corporation, and even though I was just a little kid I was stuck behind a desk and given a crash course in running the company. It wasn't long before I made enough wrong moves that a bunch of suits that used to work for Seto showed up and started running things their own way. Before long, everything was a division of KaibaCorp, even the government was practically run from a desk in the main complex. There was a coup d'etat of sorts, and suddenly KaibaCorp was the dominant company of Japan, there was even plans going on to spread into Europe and North America. The duel monsters game became very much a way of life for everyone. Everything became a game because it's easier to reinforce rules and punish those who broke them. These days people have to duel for everything. From petty street squabbles to passing new laws, everything is nothing but duel monsters. Weaker players become poor and destitute and strong duelists become wealthy beyond their dreams, as long as they mindlessly follow the orders of the KaibaCorp penpushers. If my brother was here... I know he would defeat those guys and take back his company." Mokuba fell silent and continued weeping, clutching his picture of Seto Kaiba that he always wore around his neck.

  
  


Joey kneeled down put his hands on Mokuba's shoulders. "Listen to me, man. I know things are lookin' really bad for you right now, but ya know what?" Mokuba looked up, eyes clouded in tears. "Look at me, man, here I am! I was in that weird magic thing, same as your brother. I made it out okay, I'm sure he made it through just fine too. No magic in the world could get through his arrogance. Believe me." Joey clenched his fist for a moment and release Mokuba's shoulders.

  
  


"You know, you're right! If you're here, then maybe that means Seto is here as well!"

  
  


"You betcha. Everyone else is probably here too, we just gotta find them is all." Joey jumped to his feet and thrust a fist into the air. "Awright! Joey Wheeler is ready for action! I can't do it alone, Mokuba. I'm gonna need your help on this one."

  
  


Mokuba rose to his feet. "What can I do to help? I'm not a very good duelist, as you no doubt remember.

  
  


"Yeah, no kiddin'." Joey scanned the apartment, shaking his head at the disrepair of the room. "Man, this place is more trashed than my room. And that's sayin' a lot, if you'd ever seen my room you'd agree."

  
  


Mokuba laughed. "Well, give me a little more credit than that, mister Wheeler. I may not be the best duelist around, but I'm still a Kaiba, and you know what that means?"

  
  


Joey tilted his head. "You run around telling people you're the best and actin' like you're the greatest thing to walk the earth?"

  
  


Mokuba stared a moment, confused. "Uh, no. I mean I'm always well informed of a situation and prepared for anything that may come my way."

  
  


"Same thing. You just made it sound better."

  
  


"ANYWAY, I didn't leave KaibaCorp empty-handed. Come over here." Mokuba lead Joey to a particularly ill-kept corner of the apartment. He lifted an empty picture frame off the wall to reveal a small numeric keypad. Mokuba tapped a few numbers and the wall next to slid away to reveal a large room. They entered the room and the door closed swiftly behind them. There was a single light in the room, Joey couldn't tell where it was coming from, but it was shining on a single metal desk with a small chair and a small laptop computer.

  
  


"Remember I said I'm one of the best duel monsters researchers around? It's quite true. From this computer I can access information on every card out there, new and old. I have the decks of noted duelists listed, and good card shop locations. I get a wireless feed from KaibaCorp. Only a few people know how to even access the mainframe, myself being one, so they don't monitor it. I can get all the information I want and they're none the wiser."

  
  


"Aw man, that's awesome! Can you get play-by-plays of duels and stuff like that?"

  
  


"Sure. Here, I'll bring up the battle between you and Mephisto."

  
  


"Mephisto? Is that the name of that weirdo I dueled?" Sure enough, the screen displayed a photo of the very man he defeated. There was a partial list of his cards, and his Vampire Lord was prominently displayed. Joey shuddered as he remembered the monster's bite. "Man, what was up with that guy?"

  
  


"Mephisto is one of three major duelists, the others are Diablo and Baal. I doubt that's their real names, but that's how they're known. Some obsession with evil gods or something. Anyway, those three are pretty good duelists. They're second only to the Judgemasters themselves."

  
  


"Hey yeah, what's up with that? Sounds like these guys are bad news."

  
  


"Well, yes and no. They're like the police of this time, they monitor duels from the main complex and if anyone breaks a rule or anything like that, the Judgemasters send the offender to jail. When you go to jail, you're there for good. Luckily the Judgemasters are on nobody's side. Even if the KaibaCorp's president broke a rule, he would be sent to jail. The Judgemasters have to defeat you in a duel first before sending you to jail, but that's pretty much redundant since they never lose."

  
  


"Man, everything here is run by dueling! This is like some bizarre dream that a fanatic would come up with!" Joey removed his deck from his pocket and flipped through his cards. "I beat that jerk, sure, but not by much. He had probably never seen half the cards I played, much less came up with a strategy to stop 'em. If I didn't have the element of surprise, I would have been toast. I need a plan."

  
  


Mokuba was surprised. "Joey Wheeler is actually thinking through something and coming up with a plan? I don't know what happened to you while you were gone, but you should make a habit of visiting it more often."

  
  


Joey laughed and gave Mokuba a small punch in the arm. "I guess sarcasm runs in the family, your brother would be proud."

  
  


"You know Joey, if you're serious about that whole plan thing, I know a card dealer that has the best selection in the country. The place is a bit rough, if you know what I mean. Hotheads, punks, right up your alley I'd say." Joey shook a fist at that remark. "It's not easy to get a look at the best cards, but I think I could get you in there."

  
  


"You know who runs the place, then?"

  
  


"Well, no. Actually I have no idea who runs the place. However, I think I could get us in there and get free pickings of the best cards."

  
  


"How do ya figure?"

  
  


"Those cards you have are quite old, and their value is extremely high. Your Red Eyes Black Dragon alone could buy you your own card shop and stock it for a month or so."

  
  


"No kiddin'?" Joey checked his pockets until his fingers found what they were looking for. Yugi had returned Joey's Red Eyes before the accident on top of the airship. "I couldn't part with this, though. This little baby has gotten me and Yugi out of more jams than I can remember."

  
  


"That's no problem, you could probably fetch a decent purse with any number of cards. We'd better get a move on though. They're pretty good at hiding themselves but if anyone at KaibaCorp discovers them, they have to change locations and we may not find them again for a long time, if ever. Dealers are prohibited from having rare cards for sale and violators get ransacked by the Rare Hunters."

  
  


Joey shook his head. "Man, this is definitely one crazy future. I can't believe all this happened just because Kaiba disappeared. I guess that nut-job was more important than I figured. He's still a first-rate creep, though."

  
  


"All right, all right, enough bad-mouthing my brother for a little while, okay?

  
  


Joey shrugged. "Sorry man, I just call 'em as they come. Your brother is a world-class moron and I'm gonna tell it to his face next time I see him."

  
  


Mokuba stepped up to Joey and looked him in the eyes. "Joey Wheeler. I want you to be completely honest with me. Do you really think we'll see my brother again?"

  
  


Joey looked at his Red Eyes again. He thought about Yugi, and then his sister Serenity, then Tristan and Mai and all his other friends. He slipped the card into his deck, where it belonged. "Man, you know I won't let ya down. I'm in this for my friends too. We've all gotta stick together, including that jerk Kaiba. Once we've found everyone else, I know things will be okay."

  
  


Mokuba nodded. "Thank you."

  
  


"No worries man."

  
  


As they stepped out the door into the dark hallways of the building a strange, hollow growling noise echoed through the corridor. Mokuba froze in place. "Joey, what was that?" He whispered, terrified to move in case some wild animal was ready to attack.

  
  


"Oh yeah! I haven't had a bite to eat for 25 years! I'm starved! Do you think we could grab something to munch on before we go? Or we could get something on the way, like pizza or cheeseburgers or ramen or..."

  
  
  
  
  
  


Joey has found and old friend (sort of) and now he's gone off to get his deck souped up and ready for battle! After some much needed refreshments, of course. Next chapter, Joey has to barter for the cards he wants, and he must duel the shopkeeper to close the deal! Will he and Mokuba find a missing friend somewhere along the way? Review please!


	3. Chapter 3 Darkness and Meetings

I decided to separate this chapter into two parts since it was getting kind of long. Joey will attempt to secure his trade, and his exhaustion will catch up with him.

  
  
  
  


Rain fell hard on the city of Domino that day. A gloomy cloud hovered over everyone's heads, reminding them of the dark days in which they lived. Everybody longed for the sun to return and smile upon the people once more. Make them forget their troubles, even if only for a while. However, such grace was absent of late. It seemed that the sky grew just a little darker every day, the sun setting just a little sooner each time. It was not uncommon these days to look into the sky and be met by a stinging raindrop in your eye. Small shelters had been made out of old umbrellas in some alleys, providing the people some solace from the harsh realities. Sadly, there would be no respite for anyone who did not have a home to go to, no roof over their heads. An arc of lightning cracked overhead, sending people scurrying into the comforting arms of their kin. Seldom did lightning strike, but when it did it was a sight to behold. Brilliant arcs would streak through the sky, and connect with the large tower sitting atop the KaibaCorp complex. No one knew why such a tower was built. Apparently to collect lightning, but for what purpose one could only speculate. People who lived underground, in tunnels, or have simply isolated themselves from the outside world often knew nothing of what was happening outside. To them, their own world existed away from others, away from the outside. Rarely were there windows to peer at the sorrow through, only the harsh artificial light from old bulbs. A set of eyes peered out of one of these few windows, observing the landscape in all of it's wretched beauty.

  
  


Mokuba hopped down from the box he was standing on. "Looks like the storm is getting worse out there. Lucky thing we're inside or we'd drown like the rats we are."

  
  


Joey nodded in agreement and turned his eyes back to the small booklet he held. Joey borrowed the latest copy of the duel monsters rulebook from Mokuba and was studying it fiercely.

  
  


"You know Joey, you sure aren't the same guy I used to know. In fact, you're probably the exact opposite of that Joey Wheeler I met at Duelist Kingdom."

  
  


Joey nodded to show he was listening, but kept his eyes on the book in front of him. "Really? Hows that?"

  
  


"Well for one thing, you're actually really applying yourself to studying. You've hardly said a word since you started reading. You're really taking things seriously. Makes me think I should have done the same much earlier."

  
  


"Of course I'm taking things seriously. We're talking about the fate of the country, maybe even the world here. Before now it was always up to Yugi to save the day, him and that spirit in his puzzle. Seems like the ball is in my court now, which means I have to get as tough and smart as Yugi is, maybe even smarter if I have to. I have to save my friends, and then together we'll set things right."

  
  


"Yeah, you're right. I guess that's one thing that'll never change about you, your devotion to your friends."

  
  


Joey nodded and let out a burp in agreement. Mokuba wrinkled his nose and looked at the pile of discarded plates and food containers at Joey's feet. "And I guess that's the second thing that'll never change about you."

  
  


"Hey, come on, I can't save the world on an empty stomach. I'll pay ya back for it, I promise."

  
  


"Yeah, I bet you will. Anyway, we should get a move on. Not far now."

  
  


Joey marked his page in the book and slid it in his pocket. The two continued down the dimly lit hallway, Mokuba offering friendly smiles and waves hello to a few people.

  
  


"Wow, you sure are a popular guy. I thought I'd never see the day someone was happy to see a Kaiba."

  
  


"When you're in the same drifting boat as these people, you can't help but make a few acquaintances. Ah, we're here."

  
  


Joey looked at the large door before them. It was quite wide, looked like it was made out of a very durable metal, and it had a bird's wing etched on it's surface.

  
  


"That's their calling card of sorts. There's plenty of them all over the city, marking where their goons have duelled and won against someone trying to rip them off. It's easy to see one and assume that it's just another place someone got crushed." Mokuba took a deep breath and slowly opened the door. Without warning someone from the other side of the door yanked hard on it and pulled the two startled companions inside and slammed it shut. A pair of strong arms held them in place.

  
  


"Hey! Nobody man-handles Joey Wheeler without gettin' a one-way ticket to the hospital!" With that, Joey struggled free and slammed his fist into the face of his captor. The stricken person stumbled backwards and fell to the floor, not moving. Joey spun around and got ready to kick Mokuba's captor in the head, when Mokuba's shouting broke through his adrenaline-fuelled rage.

  
  


"You idiot! This is just how they do things, for security reasons! They have to make sure that we weren't the police or anything! Then you went and punched one out! I'd say our chance of getting an audience with their leader is pretty much gone now!"

  
  


Joey blinked and stared a moment, then put on his best innocent face. "Whoops. I guess I don't know my own strength. Sorry about that, here, let me help you up." Joey offered his hand to the fallen character. There was no response made to Joey's offer, in fact, no sign of consciousness whatsoever. "I guess this guy is a little tired or something. You should probably take him to a bed I guess, might be more comfortable..."

  
  


Joey continued his embarrassed mumbling, and the person holding Mokuba turned him around and looked at him face to face. The person's face was covered by a metal mask that seemed to be made of scrap metal welded together, and a rusty, metallic voice echoed out from within it. "The eagles soar ever higher."

  
  


Mokuba nodded. "And their eyes are ever watching."

  
  


Mokuba was released. His once-captor nodded. "That is the correct response. You are free to observe our wares. You may take your friend too, providing he keeps his hands where they belong." Despite the mask it was clear the person scowled at Joey, who laughed nervously. "If you have any rare cards, do not hesitate to call and they shall be appraised free of charge."

  
  


"Thank you very much."

  
  


"Yeah, uh, thanks."

  
  


The person sighed and slowly dragged the fallen guard out of sight. Mokuba spun around to face Joey. "And here I thought you were different! I thought you changed!"

  
  


"Woah, take it easy man! I didn't know what was goin' on! If you'd 'a warned me I would have handled that a little better!"

  
  


"Yeah I guess. Just, next time you hit someone, don't let it be someone we want to help us."

  
  


"Fair enough." Joey looked at his hand. He had been cut by the metal mask, and there was a bruise forming. "What's the deal with those helmets anyway? Did I get here in time for Halloween or something?"

  
  


Mokuba shrugged. "I'm not too sure. Rumour has it that this place is actually run entirely by women, and they hide behind those masks so nobody knows about it. That's why they use those voice altering things as well."

  
  


Joey's eyes widened. "You mean I mighta just hit a GIRL? Oh man, that's gonna haunt me the rest of my life..."

  
  


"Heh, don't worry too much, it's just a rumour. Besides, that mask took the hit, not the person's face. Don't think about it too much."

  
  


Joey tried to shrug off the nauseating pit in his stomach. "Man, I'll never live that down, not in a million years. So, uh, where are these cards that are supposed to be for sale?"

  
  


"Right over here." Mokuba led Joey further into the dark room, until they came across a large glass display case with dozens of cards prominently displayed within it. "There ya go. Just pick the cards you want, tell one of those masked people, then offer up your cards or money for the trade. Once the trade is final, you'll duel one of them to make the exchange. I heard if you're lucky enough to see their rarest cards and want one of those, you have to duel the leader instead."

  
  


Joey nodded. "Right. Now, let's see what we've got here." He took a deep breath and began studying the cards carefully. "Interesting choices." He thought to himself. "Archfiend Soldier. Nah, too ugly. Berserk Dragon. Hm, too pointy." Joey eventually decided on a few cards, but was dissatisfied with how many strong cards there were. "Yo, tall dark and gruesome! I need somethin' from ya!" Joey called out into the darkness. Mokuba covered his face with his hands and shook his head slowly. A guard holding an icepack against their head appeared from the shadows and groaned.

  
  


"What is it you desire? Just tell me from over there, don't come near me."

  
  


"Oh, you're the one I socked, right? Sorry 'bout that. I didn't know what was going down and... never mind. I wanna see your best cards. These things here don't cut it along the lines I'm looking for. Call out that leader of yours and let me have a look."

  
  


"I'm sorry, but you cannot simply demand to see our rarest cards. If you are worthy you may, but street punks like you have no chance."

  
  


"Oh, is that so?" Joey reached into his pocket and pulled out his Insect Queen card. He flashed it at the masked guard before him. "Well, if cards like these don't interest you, maybe I'll take my business elsewhere."

  
  


The guard quickly grabbed his hand. "No! I mean, uh, perhaps I was too hasty to dismiss you. If you will allow me to authenticate the card to make sure its not a fake, I would gladly show you our finest cards."

  
  


Joey shrugged. "Knock yourself out." He carelessly tossed the rare insect card at the guard, who scrambled to catch it and carefully cradled it like a newborn baby.

  
  


"Such an ancient and rare card... may I ask how you got it?" The guard asked while sliding the card into what looked like a duel disk rigged up to a monitor.

  
  


"Won it from a real creep. He cheated to try to knock me out of a tournament, but I kicked his little bug-butt right when he thought he was gonna win. Serves 'im right, too."

  
  


"I see." The monitor displayed the Insect Queen, and a series of numbers were being listed and little arrows pointed to parts of the card. In the lower corner of the screen, a green 'OK!' was flashing. "Seems your card is authentic. Come with me. Mokuba must wait here, however."

  
  


Mokuba nodded. "Fine by me. This isn't my area of expertise now. I'll be waiting when you come back."

  
  


Joey and the masked guard walked towards a large steel door. The guard placed a hand on a pad next to it and the door slowly slid open, creaking and groaning as it did. They stepped inside and the door slowly closed. When it finally slammed closed, lights slowly came up and chased away the shadows. This room was very much different from all the others Joey had seen since his arrival. For one thing, there was actual furniture instead of blocks of wood and rocks. Two large sofas sat on opposite ends of a large wooden table in the middle of the room, and there were various chairs and tables in other areas. Hung on the walls were paintings and photos of landscapes and beautiful homes. Everything was neatly arranged and everything meticulously measured to achieve aesthetic perfection.

  
  


"Man, what kinda nut would worry about how their furniture looks with everything that's goin' on?

  
  


The guard visibly stiffened. "Please take a seat. I will return shortly with the cards. Would you like something to drink while you wait?"

  
  


Joey unceremoniously dumped himself onto the sofa and put his legs on the table. "Nah, I'm cool."

  
  


The guard hastily dashed off out of sight, leaving Joey alone in the moderately lit room of comfortable furniture. He leaned back and took a slow, deep breath. "Man, all this excitement is tiring me out. Come to think of it, probably the last time I slept was the night before the Battle City finals. I guess they wouldn't mind if I took a nap..." Joey had little choice then as he dropped into a slumber, his hand instinctively clutching his duelling deck in case someone tried to grab it.

  
  


Joey looked around. He was in his room back on Kaiba's airship, the day of the Battle City finals. He was about to jump for joy, thinking he had somehow made it back to his time, but something was not quite right. He didn't feel the warmth of the heated air, or the softness of the carpeting beneath his feet. He reached out and touched a nearby chair. His hand made contact, but the chair didn't budge an inch. It looked to him like either time was frozen, or this was all a dream. He looked at the doorway, and there stood the Flame Swordsman. The large duel monster had it's huge sword slung over it's shoulder, and it motioned it's hand like it wanted Joey to follow it.

  
  


Definately a dream.

  
  


They walked through the corridors, Joey staying silent. Other duel monsters stood at attention in the hallways. In front of Tea's room stood a Magician of Faith, locked in silent prayer. In front of Tristan's room was the Lava Battleguard, it nodded at Joey as he walked past. Bakura and Mai's rooms were next, Dark Necrofear eyed him creepily and Amazoness Sword winked at him. Joey was not surprised to see the Dark Magician standing in front of Yugi's room, but was confused when he saw the stood the Buster Blader as well. As they approached, the Dark Magician looked at Buster Blader and nodded. The huge knight nodded back and began following behind the Flame Swordsman, ahead of Joey. They soon reached the main deck where the duels all took place, and Joey was shocked at what he saw.

  
  


The deck was swarming with 20 or so duel monsters. All monsters Joey recognized, in fact, all monsters he had in his deck. They all turned their heads simultaneously when Joey entered, and quickly lined up single file. It was then Joey noticed there were other monsters he did not have in the lineup as well, segregated from the others. A small group of shadowy men stood closely together, next to a dog in a samurai's outfit, next to a lizard-like monster that stood on two legs. The Flame Swordsman stood with the group of monsters he did have, and Buster Blader stood with those he did not. The Flame Swordsman gave Joey a solemn nod, like it was saying goodbye. Just then, it began to vanish. Joey was about to protest to seeing his favourite monster fade away, but decided to hold his tongue and see what came next. A few other monsters vanished as well; his Hayabusa Knight, his Axe Raider, his Sword Hunter, and several others. Once they had vanished, the remaining monsters turned and looked at the monsters Joey did not recognize. They then marched together and stood with the other group of monsters. Once they had formed a new line, Gearfried the Iron Knight and Buster Blader stepped forward. They looked at each other. Gearfried extended his large iron shield out towards Buster Blader, who tapped it with his enormous sword. They looked at Joey and nodded. Joey wasn't sure he understood what just happened, but kept watching. Just then everything but the new monsters faded out of sight. Buster Blader looked intently at Joey then, and a voice seemed to emanate from deep within it.

  
  


"Here, Joey, take this. It may help you get out of a tight spot someday." It was Yugi's voice, and it was what he had told Joey when he gave him his Time Wizard.

  
  


Joey's eyes widened as he understood what was happening. He nodded fiercely and thrust his fist into the air.

  
  


"Awright! I get it! Joey Wheeler is gonna be badder than ever!"

  
  


"Argh! You hit me face! Again!"

  
  


Joey's eyes snapped open to see the masked guard he had hit earlier, clutching their head and shouting furiously. Joey looked at his fist. It was reddened, like he had punched something. He sat up quickly. "Oh man, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to get ya that time! I was asleep and having this really weird dream..."

  
  


"Enough! I'm done dealing with you!" With that, the guard stomped off to get another ice pack. Joey sighed, exasperated.

  
  


"Man, at this rate, I'll be lucky if I get outta here without my head in a noose."

  
  


"We could have that arranged, you know."

  
  


Joey looked up at the new voice. Well, as new a voice as a computer-generated drone could be. This figure was dressed differently than the guards. This person had a more ornate mask, shaped somewhat like a bird. There were what looked like talons on the gauntlets and boots, and the person wore a purple robe that could be mistaken for wings.

  
  


"What? I'm the boss here, which means I dress to impress. You're the one that wanted to look at the rare cards, right? Well here ya go." The leader dropped a large metal suitcase on the table and sat on the sofa opposite of Joey. She undid the latches on it and opened it, revealing it's contents for Joey to see. Joey's eyes lit up excitedly.

  
  


"Aw yeah, now that's more like it! Come to papa..." He flipped through some of the pages until he stopped and looked at one card. It had the same group of shadowy looking men on it that he saw in his dream. It's label said 'Exiled Force'. Next to it was another card he saw, it looked like his Sasuke Samurai but was slightly different. Joey smiled. "This won't take long."

  
  


A minute or so later, Joey had all the cards he saw in his dream assembled in front of him. He snapped the briefcase shut and pushed it back toward the leader, then pulled out his deck and began selecting cards. Once he removed enough to equal the card value, the leader leaned over and looked.

  
  


"Hm, fine choices. And such rare cards you have as well. Are you sure you don't have to ask your mommy first before you trade them?

  
  


Joey's eyes narrowed. "Watch it."

  
  


The leader sat back and pondered a moment, then stood up. "Fine, I'll accept the trade. Should you defeat me in a duel, the cards are yours. If I beat you, your cards are mine. Sound fair?"

  
  


"Sounds fine to me. Let's get this over with soon, I've got a job to do with these here cards."

  
  


"Trust me hun, the chances of you winning are pretty much nil, so you might as well accept the fact you'll be leaving a few rare cards shorter than when you entered."

  
  


Joey stared a moment. "Did that guy just call me what I think he just called me? Nah, musta imagined it."

  
  


They walked towards another door. This one was elegantly crafted from wood, which surprised Joey. The leader pulled it back with ease and they entered. It was a fairly large room, with the duelling floor clearly identified by being a bit lower than the rest of the flooring. Sitting at a table was a guard holding two icepacks against their head. The guard took one look at Joey and immediately fled through another unseen door. The leader looked back at the blond and sighed disdainfully, Joey shrugging and trying to act innocent. Another guard entered, wearing a black and white checkered robe.

  
  


"I will be your Judge for the duel. Duelists, please take your positions."

  
  


Joey took his place. "Hey, how come you got a Judge down here? Couldn't you just use them Judgemaster guys that everyone else does?"

  
  


"Because, you can't trust those Judgemasters to be impartial all the time. If that lousy KaibaCorp bribes them enough they may reveal information about who's duelling where, namely, who on their blacklist is duelling and exactly where to find them.

  
  


Joey nodded. "Gotcha. Now, if you're ready, let's get this thing started!"

  
  


"I agree."

  
  


They slid their shuffled decks into their duel disks, which snapped into duel position. Life point counters rose to 8000 and a steady hum of the holographic generators resonated gently around them.

  
  


"Duel!"

"Duel!"

  
  
  
  
  
  


Was that dream a coincidence, or was someone trying to tell him something? Who is the masked leader of the underground card traders? Will that guard get hit in the face again? Next chapter: the duel will begin and we discover the leader's true identity.


	4. Chapter 4 Friends and Foes

In this chapter the duel begins. Joey faces the strange cards and tactics with all his might, and discovers a missing friend.

  
  
  
  


Joey flexed his arms and took a ready stance. He drew his cards and so did his opponent.

  
  


"I'll go first." Said Joey's opponent, the masked leader of the underground card traders.

  
  


Joey raised an eyebrow. "I'm the challenger, shouldn't I get to go first?"

  
  


The leader shook their head. "I'm the boss here. I'll go first if I want."

  
  


Joey sighed. This was going to be one long duel, he could feel it.

  
  


"Right, first move. I'll set one card face down and summon Dunames Dark Witch in attack mode!" In a flash the high-tech fairy with large angelic wings appeared, eyes closed and hands locked in prayer. "Your move, tough guy."

  
  


Joey drew his card, then stopped a moment. "Hm, Dunames Dark Witch? That monster seems familiar somehow. I've seen it played once before, but I don't quite remember. Ah well, right now I'll just focus on blasting it."

  
  


"I'll summon Zombyra the Dark! I'll set two cards face down as well. Now Zombyra, dice that fairy with your Dark Cutter attack!" With that, the warrior lifted a hand into the air and it crackled with dark energy. It swung it down and a blade of black lighting burst forth and streaked towards it's target. Moments before it hit, the air in front of the Dark Witch shimmered, and a giant reflective surface appeared out of nowhere.

  
  


"Sorry, but my Mirror Wall trap card will cut your monster's attack short! Cut it by half, to be exact." The Dark warrior shuddered and fell to it's knees as it's dark energy rebounded off the Mirror Wall and struck it. "Now Dunames Dark Witch, show him real power!" The Dark Witch unclasped it's hands and drifted slowly towards Zombyra. She gently placed a hand on his cheek and Zombyra collapsed instantly, exploding into polygons and fading away. "Clean and elegant, without waste."

  
  


Joey grit his teeth, his life points falling to 6950. "Not the best way to start the duel." He thought. "At least I'll have my Fairy Box to defend me. Hm, now I know I've seen that Mirror Wall card somewhere before. But where?"

  
  


"If you're quite finished blundering through your turn, I'd like to continue the duel."

  
  


"All right already! Take your turn!"

  
  


"My pleasure." The leader drew, then clearly smiled despite the mask. "If you had any plans to save yourself with your traps, you were sadly mistaken. I'll play Harpy's Feather Duster!"

  
  


The card hologram appeared and a Harpy with large wings flew from it. It quickly swept across Joey's face down cards, destroying them. It flew back into the card and vanished. Joey gasped sharply as he finally connected all the clues.

  
  


"Dunames Dark Witch, Mirror Wall, and Harpy's Feather Duster? I only know one duelist that uses those cards!" Joey interrupted the duel, calling out to his opponent. "Mai! Don't you recognize me? It's me, Joey Wheeler!"

  
  


The masked leader looked sharply at him and took a step back. There was a long silence, until, "Joey? Is that really you?" 'Mai' reached up and removed the mask shrouding the face. "Joey!"

  
  


"Huh? You're not Mai. You're familiar though..."

  
  


"It's me, Tea!" Joey's eyes widened, recognizing his lost friend. She looked a little different, not just because she was dressed in robes. She looked like she had aged about 4 years. Her face had a small metal plate attached to it and her hair appeared to be made of frayed metal cabling that one could easily mistake for actual hair. There was no mistaking her as she smiled at her friend.

  
  


"Tea! It is you! I can hardly believe I found you!" Joey started to take a step towards her.

  
  


"Joey! Stop where you are!" Joey froze in place as the smile disappeared from her face.

  
  


"Huh? But why?"

  
  


"We're in the middle of a duel, Joey. If you take one more step it will be considered a major infraction of the rules and the Judgemasters will be summoned right away!"

  
  


"Huh? Isn't that why you have that guy there judging for us?"

  
  


The judge looked at Joey, cold eyes staring at him from behind the mask. "Approaching a duelist during the course of a duel is considered a type 6 offence, the most severe. Proximity beacons would be automatically activated and everyone within miles would know instantly that someone broke a type 6 rule, especially the Judgemasters. Recommend waiting until duel is completed to approach."

  
  


Joey looked hurt. "I guess I gotta win too, if I want those cards."

  
  


Tea nodded, looking equally upset. "Yes, Joey. I'm so sorry..."

  
  


"No worries, Tea. I'm still game if you are!"

  
  


Tea smiled, putting her mask back on but removing the mouth guard. "Sorry Joseph, but it seems to me that there isn't much of a game left! You're completely defenceless, and my deck is full of surprises."

  
  


"Yeah? Well you can take your surprises and stuff 'em, because I'm not through yet!"

  
  


"We shall see! Dunames Dark Witch, attack his life points directly!"

The Dark Witch put her hands close together, and a ball of white energy swelled between them. She thrust her hand forward and the energy streaked forward, enveloping Joey briefly in a cage of hot lightning. Joey tensed up, but said nothing as his life points dropped to 5150.

  
  


"Not bad, but I'll always be badder!" Joey drew his card. "I'll use Fissure to get your pesky Witch outta my hair!" The ground opened up beneath the Dark Witch and swallowed her before slamming shut again. "Now I'll summon Alligator Sword in attack mode!" A humanoid alligator wielding a sword appeared, and snarled. "Attack her with Reptile Slash!" The Alligator Sword took a fighting stance, then charged at Tea. It swung it's sword faster than either of their eyes could track it, and Tea's life points dropped to 6500 "Now I'll set one card face down and end my turn."

  
  


"You shouldn't have used such a weak monster as your only defence. I'll summon Zolga, in attack mode!" A machine-like monster with a large flowing purple cloak appeared. It stared at Joey with it's single pulsing red eye. "Now Zolga, trash his Alligator Sword!"

  
  


The monster turned it's focus on the Alligator Sword. It's eye began pulsing, slowly at first, then gaining speed and intensity. Suddenly a red beam burst forth from the eye and struck forth to destroy Alligator Sword. Before the beam connected, there was a bright flash, and there in front of Alligator Sword stood three mages dressed in purple. The middle one held a small charm, which was smoking slightly where the beam had struck it. They faded away and there stood Alligator Sword, unharmed.

  
  


"Huh? I don't understand."

  
  


"I'm surprised at you, Tea. You were the one that first showed me that move, after all."

  
  


Tea gasped sharply. "Waboku! I can't believe you used one of my old cards to stop my attack!"

  
  


"Believe it. Just because it's an old move doesn't mean it's no good, ya know. I think I may wind up teaching you something before this duel is over."

  
  


Tea chuckled. "Sorry Joey, but this duel will end a lot sooner than you think. I'll place one card face down and end my turn."

  
  


Joey drew his card and looked at Zolga. "Hm, I read about those new Fairy-type monsters in that rule book I borrowed from Mokuba. I think when you sacrifice Zolga to summon a monster you gain 2000 life points. That sure would give me the edge in this duel. Right, here goes nothin'."

  
  


"I'll play Change of Heart and take control of your Zolga!" The Change of Heart appeared in it's angelic form. It hovered and smiled politely a moment, then in the blink of an eye transformed into it's devil form. The Zolga began to glow an eerie purple and it slowly flew over to Joey's side of the field and stopped. "Good, now I'll sacrifice Zolga and Alligator sword to summon Sword Hunter!" The Sword Hunter card appeared behind the two monsters, and they both began to glow. The Sword Hunter drew both monsters into itself, but Zolga left behind a ghostly red spirit, which drifted towards Joey and vanished. His life points rose to 7150. The offering accepted, Sword Hunter emerged and brandished his two large swords.

  
  


"Looks like I turned the tables on ya, Sword Hunter will slice and dice ya and those cards will be mine! Sword Hunter, attack!"

  
  


Sword Hunter raised it's sword and prepared to attack, when the room seemed to darken and the middle of the field glowed with an odd blue light. A green grid drew itself across the field and the blue light grew into a blue orb that distorted the grid where it made contact.

  
  


"What's goin' on here?" Joey could feel a slight tugging in the air, like something was pulling him towards the blue orb in the middle of the field. "Sword Hunter, forget about that thing and attack! Hunter's Sword of Battle!"

  
  


Sword Hunter leapt forward and started to swing it's sword, until it came near the blue orb. Sword Hunter's weapon was immediately pulled down and stuck in the middle of the light. The large Hunter pulled hard on it's sword and freed it, staggering back to Joey's side of the field. The monster looked at him and shook its head slowly.

  
  


"I'm surprised you decided to attack, even though you didn't know what was happening on the field. Quite reckless Joey, I hope you don't make more mistakes like that in the future."

  
  


"Hey, what gives Tea?" Joey didn't like being left in the dark so often, having to keep asking over and over what was going on. It was frustrating for him to be outmatched by his friend, especially when he had so many pressing questions for her.

  
  


"Gravity Bind, Joey. Monsters level 4 and over cannot attack while this is on the field. You're lucky it wasn't something worse or you would have lost your monster and possibly the duel."

  
  


"Yeah well, I'll figure something out, I guess." Joey lowered his head, his spirits obviously dampened by this new turn of events.

  
  


"Chin up, Joey. You'll get through this. You've gotten through lots of tough duels before, and I just know you'll make it through this okay too. Don't ever give up."

  
  


Joey looked up at Tea. She was obviously blushing under her mask.

  
  


"Oh, uh, old habits die hard I guess."

  
  


Joey smiled, knowing his friend was still there with him even now gave him his strength back. "Thanks. I'll be more careful. It's your turn now."

  
  


Tea nodded. "I'll play Graceful Charity." A woman dressed in white appeared before Tea. She held out a pillow with three cards on it, which Tea took. She thought a moment, then placed two cards on the pillow. "And I'll discard Agido and Kelbek." The woman in white bowed, then disappeared. "And now I'll summon Hysteric Fairy and end my turn."

  
  


Joey looked curiously at the Hysteric Fairy. The Fairy looked back and adjusted it's glasses, turning it's nose up at him. "Funny," he thought, "doesn't look all that hysteric to me." Joey drew his card.

  
  


"Well, with that Gravity Bind in play I can't attack with my stronger monsters. Then again, neither can she. This means we've got a stalemate at the moment. She's probably got some way to get rid of that card or has figured some way around it, so I gotta be ready when the time comes."

  
  


"I'll set three cards face down, then put this monster in defence mode. I'll also switch Sword Hunter into defence mode." Four face down cards appeared, and Sword Hunter kneeled down, crossing it's swords in front of it's face. "And that'll end my turn."

  
  


"Preparing for the worst, are we? As you should."

  
  


"Hey, if it's anything Yugi taught me, it's that I've gotta be ready for anything and follow my instincts."

  
  


Tea seemed to sadden for a moment. She mouthed Yugi's name and looked away for a moment. She turned back quickly and tried to act as if nothing happened.

  
  


"I'll play Painful Choice. This card lets me select five cards from my deck. You then select one of those cards and it goes into my hand. The rest go to my graveyard." Tea searched her deck a moment, then placed the cards she chose down and they appeared as holograms before Joey. He looked at them carefully.

  
  


"Hm. Kelbek, Zolga, Agido, Airknight Parshath, and United we Stand. I remember Yugi telling me one time that United we Stand was one of the most powerful equip cards in the game. Better not let her have that Airknight thing either, it's probably got some crazy effect that'll wipe the floor with me."

  
  


"I'll choose Zolga to go to your hand, and the rest will go to your graveyard." Tea nodded and discarded the four cards.

  
  


"All right, I'll summon the Zolga in attack mode. Then I'll activate Hysteric Fairy's special ability. It lets me sacrifice two monsters on the field to increase my life points by 1000." The Fairy and Zolga disappeared, and Tea's life points rose to 7500. "Better be ready Joey, because when I make my move it'll mean the end of this duel. You can bet on it."

  
  


"You just worry about what you'll do when I turn the tables on ya, Tea." Joey drew his card and looked at his hand. He smiled, satisfied. "I'll set another monster in defence mode and end my turn."

  
  


"Very well. Prepare yourself Joey, because it ends now! I'll first play Cheerful Coffin. This lets me discard up to three monsters from my hand." With that, three coffins appeared. One with a Hysteric Fairy, and two with Dancing Fairys. The lids slammed shut and the coffins slid quietly into the ground. "Now, I'll summon Mudora in attack mode!" A humanoid monster appeared. It wore ancient Egyptian clothing and wielded a knife that was glowing a soft yellow. "Mudora gains 200 extra attack points for every fairy monster in my graveyard. By my count, that's 11 monsters for an extra 2200 attack points, giving it 3500 in total." Mudora's knife began glowing brighter and brighter until it was difficult to look at.

  
  


"That's one tough monster." Joey scoffed. "Too bad it can't attack cuz of your Gravity Bind."

  
  


"I know, I've prepared for that as well. I'll use the equip magic card Demotion on Mudora. This will lower Mudora's level by 2, which means he is immune to the effect of the Gravity Bind!" The Dark Ruler Ha Des appeared behind Mudora and snapped it's fingers. Mudora seemed to wither and weaken, but it's attack points stayed the same.

  
  


"Finally, I'll use Mage Power on Mudora. This will give him an extra 500 attack points for every magic or trap card I have on the field. I'll also play Fairy Meteor Crush, so even if your monsters are in defence mode you'll take damage. Now I'll set cards in my remaining spaces to maximize attack. Mudora is 6500 attack points strong now, Joey! This is the end of the line!"

  
  


Joey tried to take a deep breath, but it came out ragged. He couldn't stop his hands from shaking. "Man, if I make one wrong move now, I'm history! Everything I do now has to go just right or it'll all be for nothing."

  
  


"Mudora, destroy his first face down monster! Magic Knife Slash!"

  
  


Mudora swung it's knife, and a large, narrow wave of energy seared forward and sliced his monster in half. The Princess of Tsurugi revealed itself a second before vanishing. The wave of energy continued past the monster and hit Joey hard. He couldn't help crying out in pain as his life points dropped by 5800, leaving him with a sparse 1350 remaining. Joey's lip was bleeding, but he didn't wipe it off. He struggled to keep himself on his feet. 

  
  


"Tough break Tea, the Princess of Tsurugi's special ability makes you lose 500 life points for every magic and trap card you've got." With that, her life points dropped to 4500.

  
  


"Joey, this is the only time I'm going to ask you. Please, forfeit now. You might get hurt worse if you're attacked again, you might even..."

  
  


"No, Tea. I can't just give up because things are looking bad for me right now. If I had done that instead of standing my ground, I would never have gotten into Battle City, or Duelist Kingdom. In fact, Yugi and me wouldn't be such good pals if I just chickened out of everything. Sometimes I gotta take a chance, Tea. Right now is one of those times!"

  
  


With that, Joey drew his card and looked at Tea fiercely.

  
  


"Get ready, because the tables are about to turn! I'll switch my face down Monster into attack mode! Gearfried the Iron Knight!" The iron warrior stood fast, looking almost as nervous as Joey felt earlier. "Now I'll activate my face down card, Collected Power! This is a variation on a trick Yugi told me he used one time. In this case I won't have to destroy the monster, because Gearfried will do it for me!" The Collected Power trap card equips any monster I want with all the equipment magic cards on the field. And because of Gearfried's ability, all the cards are destroyed!" The Demotion and Mage Power cards shattered and Tea frowned.

  
  


"You've stopped my monster from attacking, but it's still too powerful Joey."

  
  


"I know. I've seen the same trick used before, discarding monsters to power up another one, that's why I've got this ready. I activate my other face down card, Fiend Comedian!" A goblin-like monster appeared. It was dressed like a game show host and was flipping a coin that was red on one side and green on the other. It leered at both duelists. "That guy is gonna toss a coin. If it lands on the green side, then all the cards in your graveyard will be removed from the game. If it lands on the red, I have to discard cards from my deck equal to the number in your graveyard."

  
  


Tea's eyes widened. "Joey! If this doesn't work, you'll have all but lost! Are you sure you want to do this?"

  
  


Joey nodded solemnly. "Go Fiend Comedian!"

  
  


The monster walked into the middle of the field and laughed, which sounded like a high pitched squeal. It tossed the coin high into the air. It spun rapidly and came back down as fast as it went up. It landed with a hard clank on the ground.

  
  


Mudora's attack points dropped back down to 1600.

  
  


"Yes! It worked!"

  
  


Tea clasped her hands against her mouth. "I can't believe I just said that!"

Joey sighed deeply. "Man, I need to stop drinking coffee, I'm all wound up. Or maybe I need more. Okay Tea, I'm gonna finish this. I'll use Dian Keto the Cure Master to raise my life points by 1000, giving me enough to use Graverobber. I'll use it to take your Mage Power out of your graveyard. Now I'll sacrifice my Sword Hunter to summon Jinzo, that'll negate the effect of your Gravity Bind. I'll pay 2000 life points to use Mage Power on Jinzo. I'll set one more card face down to raise Jinzo's attack points to 4400. Now, Jinzo attack Mudora and Gearfried finish it off."

  
  


The two monsters attacked and Mudora, along with the last of Tea's life points, were gone. All the holograms faded away. The judge stood up.

  
  


"Duel completed. Winner is the challenger, Joey Wheeler. You have earned the right to trade the cards. Please do not forget to retrieve them." The judge looked awkwardly at Joey and Tea, who did not make a single move since the duel ended. "I'll just uh, find something to do elsewhere then. Pardon me." The judge quickly scurried out of sight.

  
  


Joey and Tea stood looking at each other, neither saying anything. Joey slowly walked towards Tea, and she removed her mask and did the same. They stopped a foot apart.

  
  


Joey shakily tried to find his voice. "I'm glad I found you. I wasn't really sure if I would see anyone again."

  
  


Tea nodded. She slowly embraced Joey and began softly sobbing into his chest. Joey put his arms around her and there they stood.

  
  


It was an hour later. The trade had been made, and now Joey and Tea sat on a large sofa together in Tea's private study. The light in the room was brighter than any others Joey had seen since he arrived, but was still soft. They both held mugs of hot chocolate.

  
  


"I arrived here four years and six months ago, to this day actually." Tea said. "I was lucky, when I got here Mai found me pretty quick. She had arrived a year earlier and set up this little card trading ring."

  
  


Joey chuckled. "That explains the decorating. Leave it to Mai to turn a gloomy cave like this into her own little palace."

  
  


Tea nodded. "Yeah, whatever that girl wants, she gets. She and I made a pretty good team around here. She would duel people to get things we needed, and I would ask homeless people with some dueling skill to join us. It got us through about 3 years, and then KaibaCorp got word that there was an underground card store that had rare cards. So, the Judgemasters and KaibaCorp's elite strode in and wrecked the place. They dueled everyone and destroyed them in no time. They caved in the hideout, and a lot of us didn't make it out. I got stuck under some rubble and I was pretty badly hurt. They took Mai, I'm guessing she's living out her days in prison now. I managed to get myself to a doctor and he had to do some pretty serious work on me. I had to get this metal plate put in my face to replace the damaged part, and I got these wires implanted in me to replace all the hair I lost." She ran her fingers through the coarse cabling. "After that, I managed to get some of the women back and we rebuilt the hideout."

  
  


Joey interrupted for a moment. "Women? You mean, all the members of this little underground society are women?"

  
  


Tea nodded. "Sure. That's how Mai wanted it." She raised an eyebrow. "Something wrong with that?"

  
  


The colour drained from Joey's face as he remembered hitting that masked guard in the face. Twice. "No, no it's nothing."

  
  


Tea shook her head. "Anyway, things have been pretty much the same since then. We managed to salvage all the rare cards Mai had won, so we kept on supplying them to people. Of course we had to keep the rarest under lock and key, which is why someone has to duel the leader if they want them."

  
  


Joey nodded. "I only got here a little while ago. It looks like that everyone not only got sent into the future, but got sent at different points in the future too. That means everybody else could be here already, or maybe nobody else will show up for another few years."

  
  


"I'm glad you're here though, Joey. I've been so lonely since Mai was taken away. I'd been hoping that someday someone would find me." She put an arm around Joey's waist and rested her head against his shoulder. "And I'm glad it was you."

  
  


Joey smiled and didn't respond. He nodded thoughtfully for a few moments. "Tea, have you heard anything about Yugi?"

  
  


Tea held Joey a little tighter. "I heard a rumour when I had first gotten here that a young man with a Dark Magician had gotten sent to prison. Something about having too many rare and powerful cards."

  
  


Joey sighed. "We'll get him back Tea. We'll get everyone together and figure out a way to fix this mess. I think the best thing to do right now is look for clues and see if anyone else is here too."

  
  


Tea nodded. "Good idea. We should head to the training grounds a little ways off and ask around. The ladies here are very good duelists, they should be able to hold the fort for a while." They stood up and walked into the main entrance area, and to Joey's horror, there lay Mokuba sound asleep on the stone floor.

  
  


"Oh man! I forgot we left Mokuba waiting!"

  
  


"Mokuba? That's Kaiba's little brother there?"

  
  


"Oh man, he's gonna kill me when he wakes up."

  
  


  
  
  
  


Joey and Tea are reunited and now they, with Mokuba, will travel to the training grounds to find any information about their friends. Next chapter, Mokuba recovers from serious bedsores as the trio travels forth. Tea is acting a little strangely towards Joey, what could it be?


	5. Chapter 5 Strength and Dreams

As school kicks up again soon I'll be updating a little less frequently, but I promise that this fic will be seen to the end so never fear. In this chapter, Joey and company make their way to the training hall in the hopes of finding information. Will they find what they are looking for?  
  


Oh yeah, just in case, I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh or anything related to it. Just making sure ya know.  
  
  
  


The sounds of the city of Domino could be described best as unsettling. Perhaps more unsettling than the scenery, buildings decaying and crumbling in disrepair despite their advances in architecture. Perhaps more unsettling that the residents, oppressed people devoid of any pleasures in life and often lacking the basic essentials to survive. The sounds were not always loud, often the hollow sound of wind blowing through the crumbling structures could send a shiver up one's spine. They were not always near either, the rumble of thunder in the distance, a reminder that the sun had not shone on the land for longer than most people can remember. Rarely were the sounds subtle and easy to ignore, the sounds of dueling and the destruction and pain that always followed were not uncommon, but never could one get used to it. Underground, away from the realities of the surface world, things were always different. Be it the quiet conversations of two fugitives or someone boasting of defeating someone else in a duel, one could always prefer the relative quiet of the underground tunnels to the open fields of pain above. For Joey, Mokuba, and their old friend Tea, the sounds they beheld they had been seeking for some time. A vast training hall stood before them. Men and women alike used metal machines to train their bodies, increase their endurance to stand up to adversity. Martial arts were regularly taught to train their spirits, give them courage to persevere. Duels with step-by-step commentaries were broadcast to train their minds, teach them how to duel with skill and give them the strength to win.  
  


Joey's eyes twinkled in delight at the sight that stood before him. His mouth hanged open in awe, and he slowly walked forward to join the other people who were so enjoying what he beheld. He broke into an excited run. "Awright! A pizza place!" Joey stood in line, rather, hopping eagerly in line to receive his delectable prize.  
  


Mokuba and Tea watched him run off, not entirely surprised that Joey would find the only food vendor in the place before noticing much else. They took a seat and awaited his return.  
  


Joey got to the front of the line after what seemed to be an eternity to him. "Kay, just gimmie the works, pile it high!" The vendor looked confused for a moment, then shrugged and disappeared into what Joey assumed was the kitchen. The man came back with a tray, on it were several bottles that contained pills of some kind. Joey looked confused.  
  


"Vitamins, sir. I wasn't sure what you meant by 'the works' but I figured that meant you wanted a wide variety of them. Are they to your liking?"  
  


Joey nearly exploded. "No! They ain't to my liking! I thought I smelled pizza and all I get is a buncha vitamins? What's goin' on here?"  
  


"Sir, I don't know where you've been for the past 20 years, but precious consumables such as pizza and hamburgers have been unavailable to anyone but the KaibaCorp employees. The smell is simply a byproduct of the condensation process to make the vitamins. Now, it's not easy to make vitamins so you must pay us with some sort of raw material. Building materials, nutritional, doesn't matter. Now, I suggest you pay up before I make you regret it."  
  


Joey raised a fist. "Oh yeah tough guy? Well let's see ya try!"  
  


Joey dipped his sponge into a pail of water and continued cleaning the exercise machine. "I guess he made me regret it, all right."  
  


Mokuba munched on one of his vitamins. "It's not so bad Joey, only another hour or so and you're done."  
  


Tea nodded. "That guy was also nice enough to give us those vitamins. As long as you did some extra work."  
  


Joey begrudgingly began chewing on a vitamin as well. "Lousy no good health stuff. I can't believe there isn't any real food anywhere. Hey Mokuba, you had real food when I was at your apartment. Didja grab some when you left KaibaCorp?"  
  


Mokuba quickly shushed Joey. "Do you want everyone to know I used to work for them? Yes, I grabbed a whole bunch of provisions before I left. Now stop grumbling, I'm gonna ask around and see if I can come up with any information." He walked off and sauntered around some people lifting weights.  
  


Tea put her hand on Joey's shoulder. "I'm going to see if I can talk to the boss here. Hopefully my reputation as the leading card trader will get me an audience." She started to walk away, then turned around. "Oh and Joey, if you don't mind my room could use a bit of cleaning when we get back to the hideout."  
  


Joey jumped to his feet. "How about I clean your clock!" He threw his cleaning sponge and her, which sailed harmlessly over her head. She stuck out her tongue and disappeared into the crowds. Joey chuckled and walked over to where his sponge had landed. He leaned over and picked it up, and he noticed that he was standing in the middle of a small field of wooden posts. He looked closer at one, it had a small sandbag tied to it at about shoulder level. The post was deep in the ground, like it was meant to withstand impacts.  
  


"It's a punching post, stranger. You test the power and skill of your punches on it." A voice from behind spoke. Joey turned around and found himself looking at a large, powerful man. The man's left arm was a mechanical prosthesis, either to increase strength or replace a lost limb. He was dressed in furs and wore a mask shaped like a bear. "Go on, give it a try."  
  


Joey smiled. "Sure, I'll show ya some real skill." He cracked his knuckles and stretched his arms. Once he warmed up he took a fighting stance and punched the post hard. A crack resounded through the hall and some sandy dust was thrown into the air. Joey inspected his hand for damage, and there was none. He smiled, satisfied, and the crowd that gathered muttered to each other.  
  


"Not too shabby," the man said, "but I'll show ya some real power!" With that, he pulled back his fist and slammed it into another post. The sandbag burst open and spilled it's contents on the floor. The crowd cheered and clapped. "It's no surprise that I'm the leader here, I've got muscles on my muscles. Try again when you build up some real power."  
  


Joey clenched his teeth. "If it's one thing I can't stand its show-offs! I'll teach you what muscle is!" With that, he stood in front of a different post and pulled his fist back. He let out a deafening yell and slammed his fist into the post with all his might. His fist connected with it hard and everyone looking on let out a sharp gasp. The post split down one side and the sandbag exploded, showering all those near it with sand. Joey recoiled and let out a groan of pain as he clutched his hand. Mokuba ran out of the crowd to Joey's side.  
  


"Joey are you okay? What were you thinking?"  
  


"It's all right man, I'm used to that sorta thing, I'll be fine in a minute or two.  
  


The man looked shocked. "Joey? Your name is Joey?"  
  


Just then, Tea pushed her way out of the crowd. "You guys, you'll never guess who the leader here is! It's..."  
  


The man removed his mask and Joey and Mokuba's eyes widened in surprise.  
  


"Tristan!"  
  


Tristan stepped forward and faced Joey. "Man, it is you! I can't believe it! And Tea too!" He looked at Mokuba a moment. "Kaiba here too? Great, now the party can really start." he said sarcastically.  
  


Joey laughed. "Man, that's Mokuba. He's had time to grow up, unlike the rest of us." Joey looked critically at Tristan's large muscular body. "Well, unlike most of us."  
  


Tristan nodded and thumped his chest. "Yup, if a guy is gonna get by around here he's gotta be buff!" He extended his large hand and took Joey's. "It's great to see you again, man. I've been sittin' around here for four years waitin' for ya to show up."  
  


Joey shook his hand firmly. "Better late than never, old buddy."  
  


Tristan looked around at the crowd that was still looking on. "Well? Come on people that iron won't pump itself!" They quickly dispersed leaving the four alone. "So what do ya say we go somewhere a little quieter? We can take five in my quarters."  
  


The four sat in what looked like a bodybuilder's play room. Large heavy weights were left carelessly lying around the room and articles about weight lifting were posted on the walls. Their chairs were made somewhat haphazardly and they surrounded a large table. After Joey told Tristan about everything that had happened up until then, Tristan rummaged through one of his drawers and retrieved several folders and rolled up maps.  
  


"So what's your story, Tristan?" Joey asked. "How come you're a musclehead all of a sudden?"  
  


Tristan shook his head. "After all that's happened you haven't changed a bit. Well, like I said before I got here about four years ago. I found my way underground pretty quickly, and I couldn't believe my luck when I found Yugi."  
  


Tea leaned forward and grabbed Tristan's arm. "Yugi? Yugi is here after all? Is he okay?"  
  


"Woah easy Tea, let me finish." She sat back and gripped her hands in anticipation. "Yugi had opened some sort of dueling school, right where my training hall is now. He rallied up some people and gave them some rare cards, taught them how to duel. He figured if we stormed KaibaCorp quickly and all at once we could take 'em by surprise and bring 'em down. On the day of the attack I stuck with Yugi, he might be the best duelist around but if things got rough I could back him up. We met up with those top three guys that guard the president of KaibaCorp. Diablo, Baal, and Mephisto. They challenged Yugi to a duel and promised to relinquish their control of Japan if he won. With that kind of prize he couldn't refuse, but Yugi was outnumbered. No matter how good he is, even with that puzzle helping him out, it was three against one. He held out for a while but they overwhelmed him in the end. They called some goons out and took him away. I tried to stop them but there were too many, some of them had weapons too. I'm no duelist, so they decided to just beat the heck out of me instead. It was a running fight all the way outta that place. I finally got out and managed to get back underground. Most of my body was toasted in the fight, I lost almost my entire left arm even. Doctors gave me this big metal one and helped me recover. I turned the dueling school into the training hall you see here. I've got recordings of all the stuff Yugi taught, and I help people bulk up too. Gotta be strong and healthy to survive around here. On my way out I grabbed all this junk here." He gestured to the folded papers and rolled up maps. "This stuff is information about that KaibaCorp building. Where all the security things are, floor maps, and most importantly where they hide the prisoners." Mokuba grabbed a handful of them and set up his laptop and began studying them. "I wish we knew where some more good duelists are, with all this stuff we could storm the place and rescue Yugi and everyone else."  
  


Joey stood up. "Well hey, we've got your good duelists right here! I already beat one of them top three guys and Tea here is no pushover! We could do it!"  
  


Tristan frowned. "I dunno, man. Yugi couldn't even beat 'em and I nearly got killed trying to escape. It doesn't look good for us."  
  


Mokuba spoke up. "Not necessarily. With these floor plans and my laptop I was able to draw up a real-time map of the guard shifts in the building. I've also gauged their dueling strengths and it looks to me like both Joey and Tea could beat them all pretty easy, if they had to. The real trick is to get in there without being seen though. If we're caught then they'll just send for reinforcements and that'll be that. Then of course there's those three major goons way up at the top. Although..." He seemed conflicted, like an idea he didn't agree with just occurred to him. "We could formally challenge the Judgemasters."  
  


Tristan was taken aback. "What? I think you've got a few screws loose in there Mokuba. You should know that challenging the Judgemasters is like committing suicide."  
  


"Think about it though! If we beat them we can get a pardon on anyone we want. We could get Mai out of there and see if any of our other friends are in there

as well. I imagine they'd have Yugi in KaibaCorp's own personal prison, unfortunately. With Mai on our side we would stand a much higher chance of successfully rescuing Yugi."  
  


Joey nodded. "How does challenging them work?"  
  


"We just have to head over there and request a formal duel. They'll send out someone they call the 'guardian' and if you beat her, you get to pardon any number of people as long as you know them. I don't have a whole lot of data on this guardian, but rumour goes that she uses guardian monsters. Information on the guardian cards is not even recorded. All I can do is verify their existence, nothing about how many different kinds there are or what they are capable of."  
  


Tea, who had buried her face in her hands when Tristan told them about Yugi, looked up. "Let's do it." She wiped a tear from her eye. Everyone looked at her, dumbfounded. "If we have a chance of saving Mai and Yugi, we should do everything we can to get them back.  
  


Joey crossed his arms, determined. "I say we do it. With all of us together, we'll get Mai back in no time, then we can march on over to KaibaCorp and bust Yugi outta there!"  
  


Tristan sighed. "I guess that settles it. We'll head out first thing tomorrow morning. Everyone do whatever you need to get ready. I'll tell everyone in the training hall to give you guys their full cooperation."  
  


Mokuba picked up all the documents and his laptop. "I'm going to see if I can figure out more about those guardian cards. I'll figure out a battle plan for the main KaibaCorp complex too." With that he sat against the wall and laid everything out before him."  
  


Joey stretched his arms. "I'm just gonna head to bed. I can barely keep my eyes open here..."  
  


Tristan stood up and flexed his large arms. "Sounds good to me, man. Hang around a sec though, I gotta ask ya something." Joey nodded. Tristan kneeled down in front of Tea, who was still sitting down staring at the floor. "Tea, you know I did everything I could for Yugi, right?" She nodded slightly. "And ya wanna know something? When he lost, he turned to me and said 'If you see Tea, tell her I'll be okay, and take care of her for me.' and ya know what? I'm gonna do just that."  
  


Tea looked up at him and smiled. She wrapped her arms around him, it was a little awkward due to his bulky body, and she hugged him as tight as she could. "Thank you." she whispered to him. She stood up and headed towards one of the bedrooms and closed the door softly.  
  


Joey was silent as Tristan walked up to him. "So what's up?"  
  


"Joey, are you sure we have a chance to win? I know what you said and all, but I just want to be sure you're not just trying to be the tough guy for our sakes."  
  


"Of course, man. The Battle City tournament has given me a lot of dueling experience and I just got some new cards from Tea. I think that we have the best chance of anyone to get Yugi outta there."  
  


Tristan smiled earnestly at his best friend. "I'm glad you're back man. You even found Tea. Once Yugi was taken away I was sure that I was done for. I'm no good at dueling or anything, I really think we have a chance now."  
  


Joey nodded, then smiled. "Hey, take it easy man. You may be all big and strong now but you're still a softy at heart."  
  


Tristan shook his mechanical fist. "Care to run that by me again, tough guy?"  
  


Joey turned around and headed to his bedroom. "Sorry. You'd probably get all blubbery on me, I couldn't hit ya if you started cryin' or something. 'Night." Before he could hear Tristan's response he closed the door.  
  


Joey removed his duel disk, a great relief after having carried it around all day long. He rubbed his sore wrist where it had once been. He turned his neck gently to one side and was rewarded with a cracking noise. "Man, I'm tense." He thought to himself. He looked at himself, his clothes were covered in dirt and his body was no less dirty. He looked around the room and was relieved to find a shower in the bathroom. "I can just shake the dirt off my clothes, but I'm gonna need a shower." He tossed his ragged clothing onto his bed and stepped in the shower. The water, if a little bit chilly, felt good against his skin. "I still can't believe everything that's happened here. Everything has changed so much. Tea and Tristan have both had major accidents and they've both been alone for so long. Yugi's captured by those KaibaCorp jerks, and Mai has been stuck in prison for a long time too. I don't even know if Serenity has arrived yet or if she'll even get here anytime soon. When this is all over... IF this ever ends and we get back to our time, how can we go back to the way we were? After everything that's happened, could we all just go on like it never happened?" He shut the water off. He found a pair of pyjamas in a drawer next to the bed. They apparently belonged to Tristan because they were quite large. Joey was able to tie the pants but the shirt was practically another bedsheet. He searched through his deck briefly to make sure all his cards were still there, then got into bed. He lay there staring at the ceiling, then eventually fell asleep.  
  


Even in sleep Joey could not find true peace. A dream plagued his mind that night, a dream that seemed too real for it to be nothing but a dream.  
  


Yugi fell to his feet, exhausted. His clothing was torn and he was bleeding.  
  


"Please, no more. I can't go on dueling any longer."  
  


"Silence! You will continue to duel and we will continue to study you and that god card of yours. You as well! You shall not slack off any longer! Begin!"  
  


Yugi's opponent was in a similar condition, his identity shrouded in the shadows. "Yugi," he spoke, his voice ragged. "Get up you little pipsqueak. We can't give them the satisfaction of showing weakness."  
  


Yugi pulled himself to his feet, tugging slightly on his restraints as he did. "Okay, let's duel."  
  


Slifer the Sky Dragon and Obelisk the Tormentor faced each other, then let out their strongest attacks on one another. Yugi and his opponent were engulfed in the torrents of energy and both cried out in pain.  
  


Joey awoke with a jump. He nearly cried out but he clamped a hand over his mouth so he wouldn't wake anyone up. He sighed. There was no way he was getting back to sleep anytime soon. He strode out of his room and into the main area. Mokuba was still sitting against the wall, his laptop closed but all the documents still spread out before him. His breathing was slow and his eyes closed, he was asleep. From behind the heavy door on the other side of the room, Joey could hear Tristan's loud snoring. Joey smiled and shook his head, then turned around and started heading for his room. He stopped a moment and looked at the closed door of Tea's room. He thought a moment, then against his better judgement he crept over to the door. He opened it just a tiny bit. "I just wanna see if she's doin' okay, that's all." He opened it a little bit more and slowly poked his head in. Tea was asleep, apparently having a nightmare of her own. She was tossing and turning, a tear slowly slid down her cheek. "Don't you worry, Tea." He whispered. "Everything is gonna be okay. I'll make sure of it." With that, she stopped thrashing and seemed to sleep more peacefully, Joey thought for a moment she had heard him. He closed the door and returned to his room, where he returned to his fitful sleep.  
  
  
  


Talk about sad. Still, with Tristan on the team everything will be okay. Or will he and Joey just fall into old habits and fight a lot? I suppose both could happen. Next chapter, Joey challenges the Judgemaster's guardian to a duel and is shocked by who they find! Keep on reviewing everyone! 


	6. Chapter 6 Fate and Family

Finally, I find time to update! In this chapter, the gang head on over to challenge the Judgemaster's guardian to release Mai from the prison, has Joey bitten off more than he can chew?

  
  


So we're all still clear on this, I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! or any of that jazz. I'd sure like to, but I'm afraid I just don't.

  
  
  
  


During times of great despair, it is not uncommon for a person to seek refuge with others. Sadly, the times have become so dark and so hopeless, that all a person has left that keeps them going is the company they keep. Be it friends, be it relatives, or someone in desperate need of reassurance, one can scarcely find themselves alone. It is comforting to know that, despite the troubles that they all face, they know they can all face them together. Indeed, every person to behold is family. Family is all the people have left, indeed, all the people need to continue their sorry existence. It is fortunate then, for Joey Wheeler, to be surrounded by his family. Mokuba, despite their differences they have established a bond of friendship that will see them to the end be it for better or for worse. Tristan, his oldest and most constant companion through the hardest times has not wavered in his devotion. Tea, her devotion to friends can be counted on no matter what. It seems to Joey, however, that Tea has taken more interest in the young man than she had ever before. She would at times cast him glances that he knew were once reserved for their lost companion Yugi. Could she merely be turning some of her reserved affections towards Joey due to the young Muto boy's absence? Could perhaps the hardships she faced made her yearn for a more intimate relationship with all her friends? Could the hardships made her realize she yearned for a more intimate relationship with only one of her friends?

  
  


Joey sat silently in bed, pondering these questions and others that were plaguing his mind. It was early in the morning, a time Joey usually reserved for sleeping, followed by a late breakfast and early lunch all in one. He sorted through his deck, looking at the new cards and formulating combos. Today he would face one of his most important duels, nay, the most critical duel he had ever fought. Failure would effectively doom any chance that may exist to rescue his lost companions, therefore success was paramount. He observed the new cards thoughtfully. Before now he had seen only a couple of his new cards in passing, so he questioned how he was able to dream about them in the first place. Whatever divinity was guiding him he hoped it would not lead him astray.

  
  


Tristan's loud voice from outside the room broke Joey's concentration. "Hey everybody! Outta bed! Come on, let's go, get the lead out!"

  
  


Joey groaned. He stacked his deck and gave it a few well-practised shuffles and returned it to his pocket. He stepped outside of his room to the main living area of Tristan's quarters. Mokuba was sitting at the small table, sipping on something hot. His hair was dishevelled and he had a sour look on his face that his brother would have been proud of. Apparently he was not a morning person. Tea exited her room behind Joey, and she grabbed the blond in a soft hug from behind. This surprised him, but he returned the hug regardless.

  
  


"Mornin' Joey. Hey Mokuba." She said. Mokuba offered a slight groan in response.

  
  


"Hey there Tea, sleep well?" Joey asked, even though he knew the answer from peeking into her room the night before.

  
  


Tea let Joey go and shrugged. "No different than usual. Where's Tristan? I heard him yelling a moment ago."

  
  


At that moment, Tristan entered from the training hall. He was carrying barbells that looked to weigh as much as a car. "Oh hey you guys, I was just about to try to wake you again. Better start getting ready, we have a big day today." A loud crash and a yelp of pain came from somewhere behind him. Tristan turned around and walked back out the door. "Come on, I told you to spot that guy! I knew it was too heavy for him..."

  
  


Mokuba cleared his throat and opened his laptop. "For once one of you two stooges has come up with a good idea." Joey narrowed his eyes dangerously at him. "We need to start getting ready for today's duel. Unfortunately I couldn't find a whole lot more about the Judgemaster Guardian's deck, though I did manage to confirm one card, Iron Blacksmith Kotetsu. That card lets you search for an equip card in your deck and put it in your hand, and I think that means the guardian cards are based in some way around equipment magic cards. So Joey, I suggest you modify your deck accordingly, but keep in mind that beyond that one card I still have no clue what you're up against."

  
  


Joey nodded. "No worries man, I'll keep ready for any of them magic cards that may come up."

  
  


"Good. Now, I also studied the KaibaCorp's security layout and I think I've managed to come up with a route through the building that will keep you as unnoticed as possible. One of you two may wind up running into a guard, but that won't be until you've nearly reached the top. The longer we can keep you guys unnoticed until you get to the top three, the better. However..." Mokuba closed the laptop. "That's for later. Right now, Joey, you need to focus on winning today."

  
  


Joey smiled. "Thanks a lot Mokuba." He stood up, and stretched slightly. "I dunno about you guys, but I'm ready to kick some butt right now!" He flexed his muscles and growled fiercely.

  
  


Tea stood up. "No sense in putting it off until later. If you're ready Joey, I say we go for it!"

  
  


Mokuba sighed. "Yeah, I suppose you're right. I know the safest route there, so let's grab Tristan and get on our way. Where is that musclehead anyway?"

  
  


They looked out the door into the training hall. Tristan was there, however, he was balancing six or so people on his broad arms, much to the crowd's amusement. Joey shook his head. "Ya showoff."

  
  


Soon, they got on the road. Mokuba led them through the underground tunnels for the better part of a half hour before signs of civilization had completely vanished.

  
  


"Nobody lives out around here." Mokuba said. "Even in the relative safety of the underground, nobody wants to risk living so close to the heart of the city. If anyone finds out that people live down here, we'd have nowhere left to hide from their precious elite society."

  
  


Finally they had reached their destination. The four climbed out through a sewer manhole, a tough squeeze for Tristan, and there they stood in the heart of downtown Domino. What stood before them seemed shockingly out of place compared to the relatively advanced architecture of the surrounding buildings. It looked like a large castle, tall enough to rival skyscrapers. Against the dark sky and brilliant flashes of lightning it looked like something right out of a horror movie. The four reluctantly approached the building and stood before it's massive iron door. Mokuba reached forward and timidly knocked on the door, and a moment later it slowly swung open. Behind it stood a man fully dressed in medieval armour. The dark armour was polished to a luster and it reflected the little light there was to make him look like he was glowing. He stood towering over even Tristan and had one hand around the hilt of a huge sword.

  
  


"State your business." The knight spoke, his voice robotic and cold.

  
  


Mokuba turned away slightly and stammered. "We... we are here to... uh..."

  
  


Joey stepped forward. "I'm here to rescue my friend from this here prison! So call out that guardian of yours and let's get this thing started!" Everyone froze.

  
  


There was a tense moment, then the metal goliath spoke once again. "Very well. Follow." With that, he turned slowly and began marching into the depths of the castle and they slowly followed behind. The exterior of the building belied it's interior, which was filled with glowing monitors and flashing lights and whirring computers. Soon they reached a large room, the middle of which was taken up by a giant duelling arena, like the ones they had first seen at Duelist Kingdom.

  
  


"Remain here." The knight spoke. "The guardian will be summoned." He then walked back out the door and disappeared from sight.

  
  


Joey looked up at the arena with some apprehension. He hadn't been before, but now that he was only a minute or so away from the duel he had become nervous. He began shaking slightly, but did his best to hide it.

  
  


Tristan leaned in beside him. "You doin' okay dude? You're looking a little green around the gills."

  
  


Joey nodded and took a shaky breath. "Oh yeah, I'm just peachy."

  
  


Tea gave his hand a gentle squeeze. "Don't worry Joey, we're all here for you."

  
  


Joey nodded. Just then, two of the armoured knights returned with a much shorter person with them. She was dressed in similar armour and had a flowing purple cape. She also wore a helmet that obscured her eyes, it had small blinking lights and indicators that seemed to mean that the helmet was for more than protection. She stood before the four and looked them over.

  
  


"Which of you is the challenger?" She asked. They all looked at Joey, who was staring wide-eyed at the guardian. He looked as if he had seen a ghost, his skin was pale and he was sweating profusely.

  
  


He reached out his hand toward the guardian's face. "Could it be?" he asked aloud. He took a slow step towards her, and she frowned at him. "Is that you under there, Serenity?"

  
  


Mokuba, Tristan, and Tea all gasped collectively. They had not seen it at first but now it was clear as day to them. A tear ran down Joey's face as he approached her. "I can't believe you're here! You're okay!" He reached out and tried to hug her, when one of the large guards brought down his massive hand and shoved him aside.

  
  


She looked coldly at her fallen brother. "The designation 'Serenity' is no longer valid. I am the Judgemaster guardian. Take your place in the arena and prepare to duel." She strode past the shocked group and rose up to the duelling platform. She stood in place, waiting patiently for Joey to take his.

  
  


Joey did not move from the cold ground. His eyes were unfocused and tears continued to drip down his face. He remained silent as his friends surrounded him. They helped Joey get to his feet, but he still did not move.

  
  


Tristan shook him gently. "Joey? Hey, come on dude, snap out of it. I know you're freaked, I am too, but you need to get your head back in the game."

  
  


Joey turned his head slightly, he tried to refocus his eyes but he was still too shocked. "Why?" he muttered. "What happened to you sis'?"

  
  


Mokuba looked up at Serenity. "I knew I recognized the technology. That helmet she's wearing has put her under a sort of hypnosis. It alters a person's self, giving them new skills or even a new personality. Only one exists because of the rarity of it's components, I guess it could have fallen into worse hands than the Judgemasters."

  
  


Tea looked him in the eyes, which still refused to focus. "Joey, listen to me. I know it hurts right now, but unless you snap out of it and win this duel then you'll never see her again. There will be no chance of getting her out of here or anyone else for that matter. Do you understand? You have to be strong right now, strong for Serenity and strong for your friends."

  
  


Joey blinked a few times. He nodded slowly and walked towards the duelling arena. He gripped the rails and the elevator brought him up to the platform. He took a deep breath and steeled himself. "All right, I'm ready when you are."

  
  


She nodded. "Very well. We will play a single duel match. No time limit. If you win you may select prisoners to go free as long as you know them personally. If you lose you will be imprisoned and your deck confiscated. Do you understand?"

  
  


"Yeah, I gotcha." He set his deck down on the console.

  
  


"Very well."

  
  


The arena hummed to life. The lifepoint counters rose to 8000

  
  


"Duel!"

"Duel!"

  
  


"You may go first, challenger."

  
  


Joey nodded and looked at his hand. "If I'm gonna get through this, I have to be careful. If it's one thing about decks that need equip cards, it's that the monsters are generally weak and rely on other magic cards to support them as well. Hm, let's open up some more options first."

  
  


"First I'll play Graceful Charity, allowing me to draw three cards then discard two." He looked at his new hand critically. "Hm, let's try this new guy here." 

  
  


"I'll play the Blindly Loyal Goblin in attack mode!" The field shimmered and in a burst of light, there stood a particularly homely goblin brandishing it's wooden club. "No matter what you do, you can't take control of this guy with any of your magic cards. That means the only way to me is through him. Make your move!"

  
  


Serenity nodded. "You seem very confident of my strategies. The Kaiba boy down there must have given you a few hints before you came here. Rest assured they will be in vain. I set this monster in defence mode then one card face down and end my turn." Two face down cards appeared before her.

  
  


Joey looked at her uncertainly. "Man, still no idea what her strategy is. Well, if her deck is based more around magic cards then that trap she set probably isn't all that bad."

  
  


"All right Blindly Loyal Goblin, turn that face down monster into mush!" The goblin nodded, then waddled over to the defending monster and slammed it with it's club. The card revealed itself to be Cyber Jar. The Jar exploded, taking the goblin with it. "Okay, no big deal, we draw 5 cards and summon any of the level 4 monsters." Joey drew his cards and revealed them to his opponent. "Beastking of Swamps, Swordsman of Landstar, Giant Trunade, Polymerization, and Fairy Box. Not too shabby." He looked at what Serenity drew. "Gravity Axe Grarl, Shooting Star Bow Ceal, Butterfly Dagger Elma, Twin Swords Tryce, Wicked-Breaking Flamberge Baou. All equip cards. This means that she has no monsters to protect her right now!" he summoned his Beastking and Swordsman. 

  
  


"Now I'll summon Panther Warrior to the field, and set this card face down." The armoured feline snarled and readied it's weapon. "Now I'll sacrifice Swordsman of Landstar so Panther Warrior can attack! Go Panther Warrior and Beastking of Swamps!"

  
  


The swordsman vanished, and Joey turned his eyes away as the monsters attacked his sister. Her lifepoints dropped to 5000. He turned back and Serenity was somewhat dishevelled. Joey sighed remorsefully. "I'm sorry, but I hafta win this Serenity."

  
  


"So, you want to deplete my lifepoints before I am able to implement my strategy? A bold decision, but you are too late. I shall play Dark Hole, which will remove your monsters from the field. I shall now summon Maha Vailo." The magician appeared on the field, it's arms crossed and it's eyes cast downwards. "You see, in order to use my guardian monsters, their corresponding equip cards must already be on the field. So, I equip Maha Vailo with Gravity Axe, Shooting Star Bow, Butterfly Dagger, and Twin Swords of Flashing Light." The various weapons appeared, sheathed and ready to be used by the monster. "I shall now activate Ultimate Offering, and pay 1500 lifepoints to summon Guardian Elma, Guardian Ceal, and Guardian Baou to the field." Her lifepoints dropped to 3500 and the three monsters appeared.

  
  


Joey took a breath and studied the monsters. "They don't seem especially strong, they probably have some sort of effects that will mess me up if I give her the chance. Then there's all those equip cards on Maha Vailo, I bet that thing has all sorts of crazy abilities right now. Then there's my more immediate problem, being that there's nothing between me and her monsters!"

  
  


"Guardians, attack his lifepoints directly!"

  
  


"Until now."

  
  


Joey's Scapegoat card activated and three of the four fluffy defenders met with a gruesome fate. The pink scapegoat floated harmlessly about the field, like it hadn't a care in the world. "Hah, looks like my lifepoints are safe this round. Tough break, but I guess I was just too quick for ya."

  
  


"On the contrary, you are far from safe. Maha Vailo has acquired a few abilities from the equip cards. The Butterfly Dagger, as well as Maha Vailo's special ability, has given it an extra 700 attack points. The Shooting Star Bow decreases it's attack by 500 but gives it the ability to attack directly. The Gravity Axe gives it an extra 1000 attack power and forbids you from switching the battle position of your monsters. Finally, the Twin Swords allow it to attack twice in one turn at the cost of one card in my hand. All together, Maha Vailo is able to attack you directly twice with 2850 attack. Go, Maha Vailo, attack him directly!"

  
  


The magician looked up at Joey and smiled menacingly. It drew the sheathed weapons and placed them upon the Shooting Star Bow. The weapons then glowed a dark red and instantly fired a bolt of lighting at Joey, past his scapegoat. Joey yelled out in pain, and had no time to recover before the second bolt struck him. He slumped over the dueling field, his lifepoints dropping to 2300.

  
  


"I set three cards and end my turn. This battle will be over the moment my next turn begins, so I ask that you make haste."

  
  


Joey realized he had stopped breathing and sucked in a forceful breath. He took a moment to recover himself from the devastating blows he just received. He coughed hard and nearly fainted. Taking one more deep breath to steady himself, he drew his card and looked at his hand.

  
  


"Man, I sure hope I don't feel anything like that again. That seriously hurt! I need to get that Maha Vailo off the field or it'll finish me off single-handedly." He eyed one of the magic cards in his hand, then looked at his only monster on the field. It was still floating harmlessly a foot or so off the floor. "Maybe I can do better than just getting it off the field."

  
  
  
  


"I hope you enjoyed that souped up Maha Vailo of yours, because it's about to give you a taste of your own medicine. I play the magic card Creature Swap! This card will switch control of two of our monsters. So I'll take your Maha Vailo, and you can have my scapegoat." The card appeared, and a soft blue light illuminated the two monsters. They both shimmered out of sight briefly, then reappeared on the opposite sides of the field. "You ain't so tough without your shiny toys, are ya?"

  
  


"I'm sorry, but you may not use my own equipment cards against me like that. I activate Collected Power to pull the equip cards onto my Guardian Elma."

  
  


"Aw man, I was hoping to end this duel right here. Well, unlike Maha Vailo, I don't think that Elma gets additional attack power for every equip card. That makes it a pretty easy target."

  
  


"I'll summon Ninkendog in attack mode!" In a burst of greenish smoke, a dog-like ninja stepped forth and took a kung-fu stance. "Ninkendog, destroy Guardian Ceal! Then Maha Vailo, waste that Guardian Elma and all the magic cards with it!"

  
  


The canine ninja swiftly pulled shuriken from it's pocket and threw them at Ceal, destroying it. As Maha Vailo prepared to attack, Serenity activated another Collected Power and switched the equip cards onto the remaining Guardian Baou. Her lifepoints dropped to 3150.

  
  


"Huh, you had another Collected Power waiting. Well, no problem, I've still got down for the count. I'll set one card and end my turn."

  
  


"I am not 'down for the count' as you so put it. I will now reveal to you the special ability of one of my Guardian monsters. I will summon another Guardian Ceal in attack mode." The grotesque wolf-like creature reappeared on the field. "I will now activate my final Collected Power trap to give the equip cards to Ceal. I now activate it's special ability that allows it to destroy one monster on the field every time I destroy a magic card equipped to it. So, I destroy the Gravity Axe and the Shooting Star Bow to destroy your Ninkendog and the traitorous Maha Vailo.

  
  


Guardian Ceal held the two weapons in it's hand. They began to glow, and so did Joey's monsters. Ceal snarled triumphantly and smashed the weapons in it's hand, and Joey's monsters were similarly crushed and destroyed. "Now Guardians Ceal and Baou, finish him off!"

  
  


The two monsters reared up and prepared to attack, when Joey revealed his face down card. A large pinkish whack-a-mole game appeared in front of Joey. Little moles popped up and down, and a small doll shaped like Joey was also popping out of random holes. "We're gonna play a little game with my Fairy Box first. It's called whack-a-Joey. It's quite simple, if you hit that handsome little Joey doll there, I take damage from the attack. If you miss, well, it's not my fault your monsters didn't play more arcade games.

  
  


The two Guardians looked confusingly at the game in front of them. They stepped forward and executed their attacks. Much to Joey's relief, his lifepoints remained unscathed. "Your tricks will only last you for so long. Soon they will run out and you will be defeated."

  
  


Joey drew his card, a confident smile on his face. "Man, all those jitters I had before the game are gone. I'm totally gonna win this, and then I'll get Serenity back to normal. Things are gonna work out just fine."

  
  


"Hey 'Guardian' I've got a question for ya."

  
  


"This is highly unorthodox, but you may ask."

  
  


Joey played his magic card. "I've got a Question magic card for ya, is more like it. I'm gonna ask you a simple question, and it would be in your best interests to guess right, because you'll be in a world of trouble if you get it wrong. I hope you've been studying."

  
  


"Very well. What is the question?"

  
  


"What's the name of the monster on the bottom of my graveyard? You're not allowed to peek, by the way. If you get it right, then the monster is removed from the game. If you get it wrong though the monster will be summoned to the field and it'll teach you a lesson or two."

  
  


She thought a moment. "Your Blindly Loyal Goblin was the first monster to enter the graveyard due to my Cyber Jar's effect. That is my answer to your question, the monster is Blindly Loyal Goblin."

  
  


"Well, if you're that sure then. Let's take a look here and see if you were right." Joey took the monster from the bottom of his deck and looked at it. "Well, you get an A for effort, but I'm afraid that you still failed the test. The correct answer was; the Red Eyes Black Dragon!" With that the massive black dragon appeared and let out a triumphant roar.

  
  


"That isn't possible! The first monster you played I destroyed myself."

  
  


"True, the first monster I played hit the graveyard thanks to your Cyber Jar. Think a little farther back though. I played my Graceful Charity card first, which I used to discard this beauty here. Now he's back and ready for some monster chomping action! First, I'm gonna make a little addition. I'll play Monster Reborn to bring back my Beastking of Swamps. Ya see, this little swampy guy is what is known as a fusion substitute. When I use Polymerization here, the Beastking can substitute for one monster needed in the fusion. In this case he will be taking the place of the Summoned Skull, to form Black Skull Dragon!"

  
  


The fusion was a success, and much to everyone's amazement, there stood one of the strongest duel monsters out there under the command of Joey. The Black Skull Dragon howled, a sound that pierced through everyone there and made them shudder.

  
  


"What do ya think of that? Now for a little demonstration. Black Skull Dragon, destroy Guardian Ceal!"

  
  
  
  


The mighty dragon took a deep breath then fired a large, hot ball of flaming molten lava at Guardian Ceal. The monster had no chance and it was vaporized immediately and Serenity's lifepoints dropped to 1450. "That takes care of that little problem. I guess your guardian cards weren't as good as you thought. I one card face down and that'll end my turn."

Serenity sighed and shook her head slowly. "My guardian monsters were not my only means of destroying my opponent. It is rare that I have to use this, usually people are unable to fight past my guardians. I see now that I have little choice. First I shall use Curse of Fiend, this card will switch your Black Skull Dragon into defence mode. Now I shall play Delinquent Duo, which will remove the last two cards from your hand at the cost of 1000 lifepoints, and the stage is now set. Prepare yourself for a force the likes of which none may compare. It's power is absolute, not even your mighty dragon will withstand it's crushing might. I play Shinato's Ark!"

  
  


With that, a large boat appeared behind Serenity. It looked to be gently rocking in the nonexistant waves. There were large doors on the bow of the ship. It appeared harmless, almost waiting for something.

  
  


Joey did not want to put anything to chance. "I'll activate Poison of the Old Man and use it to give me an additional 1200 lifepoints." His lifepoints rose to 3500, putting him a little more at ease.

  
  


"It matters not! Once I make the offering, the Ark doors will open to reveal your destruction! I offer Guardian Baou and your pathetic scapegoat on the field as well as Guardian Elma in my hand!" The monsters were pulled into the Ark by a soft blue light. The three offerings were accepted. The room seemed to darken all of a sudden, the light looked like it was being drawn into the Ark itself. The seams in the doors began emitting a harsh yellow light. A moment passed as the light grew and grew, until the doors burst open, blinding all those present with a scorching amber light. Joey squinted through the light, trying to make out the figure emerging from the ship. The light settled and everyone was shocked at what the Ark had produced. It looked to be somewhat angelic, it wore a soft blue robe over indigo clothes and a mask permanently fixed in a frown. It's six massive golden wings were spread out and took up nearly all the space in the room. The Black Skull Dragon looked short compared to this new creature. "I beseech you all, feast your eyes upon ultimate power, Shinato the King of a Higher Plane! When this mighty monster destroys your defence mode monster, it deals damage equal to the monster's attack points!"

  
  


Joey looked at the monster in horror. He had not felt this intimidated since he faced the Winged Dragon of Ra way back in Battle City. "Shinato, destroy the Black Skull Dragon!" The large angel brought it's hands forth and meditated a moment. A ball of blue energy began growing between it's hands, then it thrusted it's hands forward and a beam of iridescent light burst forth and the Black Skull Dragon melted away into nothingness. The beam continued past the dragon and Joey was awash in the light as his lifepoints dropped to 300. To say that what Joey felt at that moment was painful would be an understatement. His body and his mind were both burning hot with agony. His senses overloaded by the intensity, he could do nothing but silently cry out. The pain of the attack kept building and building, until the light began to fade away.

  
  


Joey was on his knees. His clothing was burned and torn, his forearms that he futilely used to shield himself were similarly scorched. His senses returned, quite dulled by the experience. He looked around in a daze. He could barely remember his own name at the moment, to say nothing of recognizing his surroundings. After a few minutes of dead silence in the room, he regained some of his wits. He shakily rose to his feet and groaned loudly as he clutched the panel in front of him to keep from falling over. He looked down at his friends, Mokuba, Tristan and Tea. They were all shouting something at him, he could not make out any words but they looked very upset. He looked up at the frightful angelic monster before him, and looked at Serenity. Her expression was cold and uncaring, very unlike the Serenity Joey remembered. Joey thought back to when they were just kids. Playing on swings in a park, laughing, enjoying their time together. When their parents divorced Joey was not sure if he would ever see Serenity again. Then, years later, Serenity had gone to a hospital in Domino city for her eye surgery. Joey was so excited, he would finally get the chance to catch up on old times with her. The Battle City tournament got a little out of hand, with Marik using his mind control powers left and right, then the Battle City finals coming up. Serenity managed to stay with him, though. Even through his toughest Battle City duels, Serenity was always there for him somehow. Then, when they finally had time to be together, they had been caught up once again in a different event that had separated them across time. Then, when they had finally been reunited once more, yet another circumstance kept them apart.

  
  


Joey shook his head. "It's a funny thing, isn't it Serenity?" he spoke out loud, not sure if Serenity could actually hear him. "It seems that every time we're together, something tries to keep us apart. It started with divorce, then all that mayhem during Battle City, and now a crazy future run by duelling and brainwashing. What may try to keep us apart next one can only guess. I do know one thing for sure, though." Joey let out a yelp of pain as he flexed his muscles hard, getting his adrenaline flowing. "I know that I'm gonna win this duel and I'm gonna get you back! Even if I have to tear this universe another black hole I'm going to set everything right again, and then nothing will stop us from being together! Now!" Joey drew his card. He slammed it face down. "Serenity, listen to me. This card I set needs me to have at least one card in my hand to work. Right now I'm completely defenceless. Another attack from that Shinato thing will not only cost me this duel, it may cost me my life. I know you can hear me under that brain bucket you got there! Please! I know you can fight whatever they've done to you!"

  
  


Serenity drew her card then stared at Joey, perplexed. "I... should not attack? Yes... yes it's true. Another attack would probably hurt you really badly."

  
  


"That's right Serenity! Just end your turn, and we can put this entire thing beside us! I'm your brother, you can't just attack me in cold blood like that!"

  
  


"Brother? I have a brother..." the lights on the helmet she wore began to flicker slightly. "Joey. That is your name, isn't it?"

  
  


"That's right! You see, you can fight it! Now come on, don't attack me, just end your turn and I promise everything will be okay!"

  
  


"I... Shinato, prepare to... no..." She looked about helplessly, her mind locked in a desperate battle against itself. The lights on the helmet continued to flicker, fading in and out as she struggled to find her true self. She gave out a small cry, and suddenly the lights went out. She gasped and looked up. "I end my turn." She quickly said.

  
  


The angelic Shinato looked confused, but stood down from it's attack preparation. The lights on the helmet came back on and Serenity looked about, confused. "What? What happened? Shinato attack now!"

  
  


Joey laughed loudly. "Too late! You Judgemasters may think you're all that with your fancy shmancy mind control, but nothing can truly beat who a person really is!" He drew his card, then activated his face down card. "I activate Rope of Life! This card requires me to discard my entire hand, namely this one card, then it brings back one monster from my graveyard and gives it an extra 800 attack points! I'll give ya three guesses what I'm gonna revive." The air vibrated as the shriek of the revived Black Skull Dragon echoed throughout the room. "Darn, he went and spoiled the surprise. Now that his attack points are 4000 strong, your Shinato with only 3300 is gonna get a taste of what true power means! Black Skull Dragon, finish it off!"

  
  


The dragon reared it's head back, then blew forth a mighty fireball that quickly incinerated Shinato. Serenity's lifepoints dropped to zero and the triumphant dragon vanished. Joey pocketed his deck and descended the elevator. He hit ground floor and looked to one of the Judgemasters standing guard. "I want the prisoner Mai Valentine released. And my sister... I want her back too..." Joey could not speak anymore, the exhaustion and pain quickly putting him into a deep sleep. Tristan caught him before he could hit the ground, and carefully slung him over his shoulder.

  
  


Serenity stood before them. "It seems the challenger has won. Therefore the prisoner known as Mai Valentine shall be released under your care." She signalled one of the guards to retrieve her. I'm afraid his second wish cannot be granted. I am needed here perhaps more than he realizes. He cares a lot about his sister, which is commendable, but without me the Judge system may break down and anarchy would rule the duels. In these desperate times I am sure you all agree, I must remain here." The guard returned, wheeling an unconscious Mai in a wheelchair to the group. "She is unconscious at the moment. She became rather violent today and she had to be sedated. She will wake in a few hours." The group quietly thanked her and left. "Be strong Joey." she said as they walked out of the castle.

  
  


Nothing was said by the three companions as they made their way back to the training hall. To break the silence after the intense emotional moment they had just witnessed would seem somewhat sacrilegious. Once they had returned, Mokuba quickly locked himself in his room, apparently he wanted to be alone for a while. Tristan and Tea set about getting Mai comfortable in her room before working on Joey. His clothing had been practically destroyed during the duel. Tea politely turned away while Tristan cut the ruined clothes off him and wrapped him in the bed sheets. They carefully treated his burns and quietly left him to sleep off the events of that day.

  
  
  
  
  
  


Definitely a dark chapter. Joey was briefly reunited with Serenity and managed to rescue Mai, but at what cost? Will Joey be able to continue the struggle after the intense battle, for that matter, will any of them want to go on? With so much at stake, let's hope so. Keep reviewing, everyone!


	7. Chapter 7 Awakening and Trust

Yup, your eyes deceive you not. I've finally added a new chapter after about a bazillion years. I had hit a sort of a slump in my writing, because of both a touch of writer's block and school-related stuff. As a result, I'm sorry to say that this is (in my opinion) my weakest chapter. I've also hit that crossroad where I can't just plan the fic one or two chapters ahead anymore and I've been forced to think several chapters ahead. Not to worry though, now that this chapter is finally done I'll be able to progress much faster and update much more frequently. Duels are really fun to write, so there's more incentive right there. Remember, I promised to see this fic through to the end and that's exactly what I will do.

It's been a while, so to be sure, I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! in any part. I have a neat card collection, but that's about it.

As we are able to perceive it, there is but one defining constant in the universe. How we perceive it can define how constant it is, a curious paradox. Time is that constant. For some, time can be a gentle giant; conspicuous, ever present and always on one's mind, yet one can put this presence aside without fear and continue their lives. For some it is a vicious wild animal; no matter how fast you run it is always gaining on you, and you spend your days imagining it sinking it's teeth into you. For some it is like the like the gentle waves on the ocean; reminding you that every moment is precious, beautiful, and boundless. It can sometimes go quickly, robbing you of precious moments that would never come again. Sometimes it can go slowly, turning a moment into an eternity. For Joey Wheeler, time seemed to be but a distant memory. He lay in the makeshift bed, staring at the ceiling as if it held the answers to the greatest questions imaginable. His pain and fatigue too great to allow him any freedom of his downy prison. His body was bound by bandages and he was as safe as he could be in this futuristic realm, surrounded by friends and in a warm, if slightly misshapen, bed. He would not wish to escape this timeless state, even if his body could allow it, and there he would stay until he knew he could continue to face his harsh reality.

Or at least until he had some new clothes, his original attire having been completely ruined and therefore removed.

A gentle knock came to his door. He could barely tell there was a door in the room, much less do anything to answer the knocking. The door slowly opened to reveal a figure that nobody, especially Joey, could mistake for anyone other than Mai Valentine. Her appearance had certainly changed with the times and hardships, as did all the others who still had the will to fight. Most notably, her long blond hair had been cut quite short, though still maintaining the brilliant blond and feminine structure. Her outfit was tight around her body, with several contacts that looked to serve as attachment points for some kind of armour.

She slowly approached Joey as he lay in his bed. She sat down softly in a chair next to the bed with a sense of familiarity, as if she had done that same motion many times before. She sighed, and leaned gently against Joey's bed. "Good morning Joseph, I sure hope you're sleeping well." she said wearily. "Everyone is worried sick about you, you know. I hope you pull yourself together soon."

Joey merely continued to stare at the ceiling, as he had been doing since they returned from the daring challenge against the Judgemasters.

"Look hun, I can't really understand what you went through. None of can even guess how hard it must have been to duel your little sister like that, what it must have felt like to have her not remember you. If any of my words are getting through to you, then listen to these. We've all suffered because of whatever happened on the blimp back at Battle City. Tea and Tristan have both been seriously hurt, Mokuba has been living in hiding and constant fear for longer than any of us have been here, and I've been locked up for years. Despite that, we've all endured and thanks to you, we've been reunited. I guess what I'm saying, Joey, is that you should take it like a man and come back to us where you belong. It hurts now, but you'll get over it. We need you now more than ever. Come back to us soon." She stood up and began to leave. She stopped and thought a moment. "Oh, come to think of it I haven't thanked you properly for saving me." She walked back to him and hesitated a moment. "You just be thankful you're not really awake at the moment, because I probably couldn't do this otherwise." She leaned in and gave him a quick kiss. "Hm, that wasn't so bad after all. Don't read too much into that Joseph, that was just my way of saying thanks. Besides, I wouldn't want to take you away from her. That's not being very fair." She quietly strolled out of the room, closing the door softly behind her.

Joey's expression remained unchanged for a moment. Then, he very slowly took a deep breath. His eyes refocused and he blinked furiously, as if he had not done so for days. He slowly reached his hand up and gingerly touched his lips, where Mai's had been seconds before. For the first time in a long time, a smile crept onto his face.

"No, thank you, Mai."

Over the next few minutes he had methodically brought himself into a seating position. He had not moved at all for at least a week by his reckoning, so his muscles had weakened from the inactivity. With great difficulty he pulled on the oversized pants he used to sleep in before, and hesitated a moment to prepare himself. He stood, wobbled a moment, then unsteadily made his way towards the door. He opened the door, a motion that just about pitched him straight over onto the floor had he not held the knob tightly.

Mokuba was sitting in the main room working on his computer when Joey stumbled in. He quickly ran to Joey's side. "Joey! You're up and moving! Here, sit down." He helped Joey onto the sofa. 

Tea and Mai entered the room at the same time. "Mokuba, what's all the shouting... Joey!" Tea hurried to Joey's side and hugged him fiercely.

Mai laughed. "Careful there Tea, you don't want to send him right back to being bed-ridden again, do you?" Tea released her grip on Joey, and Mai took the opportunity to give him a hug as well. "Good to see you're finally up and at 'em, sport. You had us all worried. I heard you went through a real tough battle to save me. Thanks a lot."

Joey nodded. "You already thanked me for that earlier, didn't you?" He joked weakly.

Mai blushed furiously. "I'm certain I don't know what you're talking about. You must have been dreaming it."

Joey laughed. It felt good to do so after so long, even if the motion made his sore muscles burn. "You haven't changed at all, have you Mai? Even after everything that's happened to you?"

Mai shrugged. "Well, you can't let adversity get to you. Sometimes some things change..." She ran her fingers through her shortened hair. "But it's important to make sure who you are inside never changes."

A loud growling noise suddenly filled the room. It echoed off the stone walls making it even louder, scaring everyone in the room witless for a moment. They traced the source of the sound to Joey's stomach, and he sheepishly placed a hand over it. "Well, I can think of one thing inside me that needs changing. I'm starving!"

Later, Joey had eaten his meal and after a bit of exercise in the training hall he was feeling more like his old self again. Joey had gotten a new outfit, his clothing being unsalvageable. He wore a tight, blue shirt with armour-like padding that emphasized his masculine features, pants that were made of a very tough leather-like material, and a large decorative sword. Joey had personally designed the outfit using the Flame Swordsman as the base model, with a few modifications for style and efficiency. He had the residents of the training hall to thank for generously contributing their time and resources just for Joey, under the 'suggestions' of Tristan of course. He made sure the outfit would be able to withstand the dangerous duels he knew he would soon be facing, and offer some protection from them. Mokuba took him aside, they sat on the large couch with the laptop in front of them. "While you've been in dreamland for the last week, I've had some breakthroughs that you may be interested in hearing."

Joey sighed. His mind wandered back to the duel against Serenity, not for the first time. He shuddered at the memory of her cold voice commanding her monster to attack him. He rubbed his forearms where the attack had burned him the worst. "I dunno man, that last duel was nearly the end of me. I don't think I can take on any more duels like that. Especially going against three of them that may be even more skilled than Serenity..."

Mokuba interrupted. "Joey, do you want me to just tell you that you're feeling this way because you had to duel your sister? The fact of the matter is, it wasn't really her you were duelling, and you won. Frankly I think you should be proud of the fact you didn't let up even once, because it led you to victory and we now have Mai back with her friends where she belongs. I suggest you get over whatever inferiority complex you have going on, because we need you to win this war Joey. Do you understand?"

Joey stared at Mokuba. "Ya know, you're becoming more like your brother all the time. If it wasn't for the fact that you're helping me I'd swear you were that flaky jerk." Joey laughed while Mokuba's face turned bright red.

"Oh be quiet. It's all this hanging out with you geeks, you're reminding me about all the times Seto had to put up with your antics. Now, can we focus for a minute?"

Joey nodded. "Sure, so what's up?"

"Like I said, I've received some information that you may be interested in hearing. There are going to be some new cards released in about a week. This can be dangerous because if we want to make our attack it would have to be before the new cards come out, or else we'd be going in blind. Baal, one of KaibaCorp's top three, always uses the most modern cards. It gives him the advantage in that opponents never know what to expect and have a hard time reacting to combos. We have an edge in that we can constantly monitor his current deck list, however if he gets his hands on those new cards we'll have a lot of blank spots in the list until I can fully study the new set."

Joey leaned back and folded his arms, his eyes closed in thought. "How easily would we have access to the new cards?"

"Mm, not very easily. I'm not sure how Mai originally got the cards she didn't win in duels, but I can't imagine it was much fun for her and her group. I'll ask her, but I don't think I can guarantee anything."

"So this means we'll have to attack within one week."

"That's right, so you'll have to get your strength back to full before then. I'll try to formulate when an attack will have a higher chance of success. In the meantime, I suggest you head back to the gym for a while. And for everyone's sake, please take a shower afterwards."

Joey sniffed the air around him and shrugged. "All I smell is my aftershave. Well, better get on that exercising if I'm gonna be ready for our attack." He hopped off the sofa and headed for the door. On his way out, he thought he heard Mokuba mutter "But, you don't shave." He decided to ignore it, even though he was right.

Joey was working up a real sweat. He couldn't remember a time he had worked out so hard, except for one time in his gym class. His teacher had informed him that he and Tristan were tied at being the top students in the class. For the next few days he and Tristan tried to gain favour with the teacher to become the top student, they both worked harder than ever before. However, Tristan had started becoming sick, his body couldn't handle the stress as well as Joey could. So, Joey began lagging behind ever so slightly to give Tristan the lead. Tristan had won an award for athletic excellence as a result. He was about to refuse, he knew that Joey had stopped giving his best just so he could win. Joey insisted however, and he eventually gave in. He promised that from then on, if Joey needed help he would be there to give it to him. Joey looked around and saw Tristan. He was setting up another exercise machine for Joey to use, he had begun personally training Joey to get him back in shape. He smiled. "Man, I'm lucky to have friends like these. Tristan is helping me get back in shape, Mokuba is helping me with card strategies, Mai is gonna try to get me some killer new cards, and Tea..." Joey pondered a moment. "Come to think of it, I haven't seen Tea in a while." He walked over to Tristan.

"Oh hey Joey, I've got this machine all set up for ya, and I've got you scheduled for a Tai Chi lesson tomorrow. Street fighting is all and good, but it's somehow lacking in a mental component..."

"Hey thanks. Say Tristan, have you seen Tea anywhere?"

"Hmm, I can't say I have. She just sorta disappeared after you woke up. I think she headed towards Mai's room a moment ago." He shrugged. "Girl stuff I guess."

Joey nodded. "Thanks man. I think I'm gonna take a little break, see what everyone else is up to." he silently added, "see what Tea is up to, that is." With that he made his way to Mai's room. The door was open a little bit, so Joey was able to listen in easily. He took a quick peek inside. Mai was attaching components of a very elaborate set of highly technological armour onto her jumpsuit. Tea was sitting on the bed next to her. Joey let out a small sigh. "Good, she's safe." Joey thought a moment. "Wait, why am I so concerned about whether Tea is okay or not? I mean, I care of course, but..." His mind fell silent as Tea spoke.

"...I may not have been dropping many hints but he doesn't seem very interested."

"Look hun, he's been under a lot of stress. He hasn't been here as long as we have, he's still just trying to find his feet. Just be patient."

Joey let out a small chuckle. "Girl stuff indeed." he thought to himself. "I wonder who they're talking about?"

"I suppose you're right. I haven't been really subtle though, and you noticed, do you think maybe I should try being more direct?"

"As much as we all love him, you'd have to practically slap him in the face with something like this to make him get it. Come to think of it..." there was dead silence for a moment, Joey listened carefully. Suddenly his entire world became a living nightmare as Mai slapped the unsuspecting Joey in the face from seemingly out of nowhere. "Maybe a slap is exactly what he needs!" she screamed into his ear. "How dare you eavesdrop on a private conversation, Wheeler?!" Disoriented and panicked, Joey scrambled into his room and shut the door quickly. He could hear Tea and Mai laughing in the other room.

Joey sighed. "Well, I suppose that's what I get for listening in like that." he gently ran his fingers along the red spot where Mai had slapped him. "She didn't have to hit so hard though." Resigned, he removed his deck from the nearby duel disk and absentmindedly began shuffling it. He felt more at peace when he focussed on something familiar and routine. It wasn't long before the tranquillity he achieved began to make him sleepy. His energy still wasn't back to where it used to be, so he decided taking a nap would be a good idea.

Unfortunately, he had quickly forgotten that sleep had not come easily, nor eased his weariness since he had arrived in this future. His mind was awash with bizarre dreams.

Yugi Moto cried out in pain as he was struck by a vicious attack. He fell to his knees, his legs no longer able to withstand the torture. His deckmaster, the Dark Magician, quickly attended to his master. Sadly there was little the Magician could do to help, and his master fell unconscious. The Magician rose to it's feet and stood between Yugi and his attacker. Unfortunately there was little it could do to help as another attack from an unseen source plowed into it, destroying it instantly. A laugh echoed from the darkness.

"Can you feel the pain, my pain, little Yugi? It isn't much fun to face defeat over and over, is it? I will make sure you continue to suffer as I have suffered! I shall delight in your prolonged agony, little Yugi!

Yugi remained motionless, his body refusing to comply. A tear rolled down his cheek, and he silently prayed to whatever benevolent force that may be listening to help him. Sadly, his pleas apparently went unnoticed as he was yet again awash in the searing dark energy attack.

Joey awoke with a start. He yelped loudly and pulled his knees up to his chest. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and took some deep breaths. When his mind had fully awoken, he looked to his doorway to see Tristan, his hand hanging in the air limply in front of the open door. He had apparently awoken Joey from knocking on the door, he now regarded his friend with a worried look.

"I'm sorry man..."

Joey relaxed himself. "It's okay, no worries. What's up?"

"Mokuba wanted me to wake you. He says it's an emergency. He didn't say what about."

Joey nodded and swung himself out of bed. He entered the main room and took a seat while Tristan leaned against the wall. A moment later Mokuba entered, looking very flustered, with Tea and Mai behind him.

"Ah good, everyone's here." He said. "It seems we have less time to make our move than I thought. If we don't attack tomorrow, we won't get a better chance for a long time, if ever."

Everyone was frozen in shock. Tea spoke up first. "But that's too soon! We'll have no time to prepare!"

Mokuba waved his hand dismissively. "I know how you feel but there is no other choice. We either go tomorrow, or our chances of a successful attack will fall drastically every day afterwards."

Everyone looked expectantly towards Joey. He was confused for a moment. "Why is everyone looking at me? Do they want me to make the decision? Why would they want me to..." It suddenly dawned on him. "They've just made me the leader! With Yugi gone we have no definite leader, and I was the one that brought them all together like Mokuba said earlier. I can't believe this! Oh man, what would Yugi do at a time like this?" He vaguely recalled something he had said once, perhaps the reason he had been silently voted into leadership. He thought back to the first day he had arrived in this nightmare of a future, and what he had said to Mokuba. Before now it was always up to Yugi to save the day, him and that spirit in his puzzle. Seems like the ball is in my court now, which means I have to get as tough and smart as Yugi is, maybe even smarter if I have to. I have to save my friends, and then together we'll set things right.

He stood up slowly. Took a moment to tentatively straighten his outfit. He then surprised everyone by thrusting his fist into the air.

"Aw yeah! I say we head on over there and topple that tower! We'll get Yugi back and figure out a way to set all this right again! They'll be sorry they ever messed with Joey Wheeler! I'm gonna pound them so flat they'll have to look up just to look down! When I get a hold of them I'll..."

  
  


Yup, Joey's back in action it seems. Will he guide everyone safely through the dangers of this deadly future that nearly claimed his life? Or will his past emotional injuries get the better of him once again? Next chapter, Joey and his friends storm KaibaCorp! I swear the next chapter will come sooner. Really. No kidding.


	8. Chapter 8 Siege and Traps

I told you I would get another chapter up soon. The gang is going to make their move against KaibaCorp at last. The next few chapters should prove to be the most action-packed of the lot. So I hope the edge of your seat is comfortable, because that's where you'll all be sitting! Probably.

  
  


Dawn broke over the city of Domino. One could only tell that, however, by looking at the nearest clock. The people of the land had not seen the sun for so long, it was hard to remember exactly what it looked like. However, for once the fierce winds and storms seemed to lull. It was a moment that could be described as a morbid tranquillity. At the eye of this storm stood the vast KaibaCorp building. It's enormity was matched only by it's powerful influence. It stood as a citadel of corruption, the very source of sorrow. Few even dare to look upon this evil tower, for fear they would be cursed and suffer without cease for the rest of their days. Still, some see this tower as an obelisk, a pinnacle of prosperity. Those who rely on this tower to maintain their livelihood see it as nothing less than a necessity, like food or water. However it is the undeniable truth that since the formation of this great, dark conundrum of love and hate, there has been great pain in the hearts of many. Joey Wheeler was no exception to this. He, and certainly his friends and loved ones, had experienced pain like none other because of the KaibaCorp. Tristan and Tea had both been seriously injured, their bodies now shadows of their past selves. Mokuba had been forced into isolation and fear, and Mai had been imprisoned for years. Serenity had been stolen away from Joey against her will, and Joey himself now bore terrible scars, both physical and mental, from his terrifying duels.

This day, they would seek their revenge.

Joey and company took refuge behind some debris before the massive building, to avoid detection. Mai was absent, she said she had her own methods of 'getting around' and had left before anyone could protest.

Mokuba's eyes were fixed to his computer screen. "Okay, we have 42 seconds left. On my signal, we need to run like we've never run before straight through the front door. Once inside, we methodically take cover and approach the elevators in the rear of the room until we're all in. Got it?"

Everyone nodded. There was a brief pause, and Mokuba gave the signal. They broke from their cover and charged for the door. They burst inside and took cover behind the large marble pillars within. A second after they had taken cover, a single guard emerged from the elevator. He yawned, took a brief look around the room, and sat down in a chair behind a small desk in the corner of the room. Joey sighed softly, the guard had not seen them, so far so good. He glanced over at Tristan, who was behind a pillar next to him. He seemed similarly relieved at their safe entrance, and leaned up against the pillar. Unfortunately it was not designed to take very much weight, because the moment he put his massive bulk up against it a loud crack resounded through the room and the pillar split down the middle, bits of marble and plaster clattering to the floor. The guard was on his feet instantly. He walked cautiously towards Tristan's hiding spot. There was little he could do to redeem his stealthy posture, so he prepared to take the guard out with a swing of his huge fist. Just as the guard was about to round the corner however, he froze on the spot. He made a sound like a muffled scream then slowly slumped onto the floor. Everyone was silently asking each other what happened, when the air next to the guard shimmered. A second later, there stood Mai. Everyone was relieved, and they made their way to the elevator. The door slid closed.

Mokuba wiped his brow. "The elevators are safe, we can talk here."

Tristan turned to Mai. "Thanks a lot for taking care of that guy, but how did you do that?"

Mai shrugged. "Personal cloaking device. This outfit isn't just high fashion sweetheart, it's got everything a girl needs to take care of her dirty work."

Joey folded his arms and leaned up against the wall of the elevator, relieved at the brief break in the tension. "So we're this far, what's next Mokuba?"

Mokuba was already absorbed in his laptop again. "Most of the security systems in the building are undergoing a full diagnostic simultaneously at this very moment. That means that they're inactive for the time being, so we can ride the elevator almost all the way to the top. We'll have to stop one floor before our destination and split up from there. Joey and I will circle around to the holding cells and see if we can find Yugi or Seto there, while the rest of you gets to the stairway to the next floor. Mai has the map downloaded so she can guide you, Tea can duel anyone who gets in your way, and Tristan can take care of anything else that comes up. Are we all set?"

Everyone nodded, and the doors opened. They wasted no time, Joey and Mokuba took off running towards the prison. They didn't have far to go before they found the entrance to the prisons. Mokuba regarded his laptop a moment, then punched in a short sequence on the door's keypad. The door gave way and they cautiously entered. At first glance it seemed to be like any other prison. As they looked closer, it seemed that the prison had hardly been used, if ever. It was also unusually large and vacant. In fact, it looked like everything in the room had been put together recently and in great haste.

"Mokuba, this doesn't look right, this feels like a..."

He didn't get the chance to finish, the door slammed shut behind them and locked tight. A voice echoed from the shadows in the far corners of the room. "Like a trap, mister Wheeler? Too true. And here I was hoping I would get to spell it out for you. I guess I underestimated you for the second time." The figure stepped into the dim light, and Joey recognized him instantly as his very first opponent since arriving in the future.

"Mephisto!"

"That's what they call me."

"How could you have set up a trap for us if you didn't know we were gonna be here? How could you have known?"

"I believe the young Kaiba has the answer to that. Unless he hasn't figured it out already."

Mokuba turned white as a sheet, he looked like he was going to faint. "You mean... all this time... you knew I had access to your computers?"

"Bingo! You're a smart one, just like your brother. That's right, we figured you would try to pull something like this someday so we kept an eye on your little connection ever since you left us. We let you have all the classified data you could ever want, it made no difference to us. We knew that one day we could lead you into our little mousetrap, and here you are."

Joey growled. "You sneaky little good-for-nothing rat! What about the others, what's gonna happen to them?"

"I imagine they've made a similar meeting with another member of my little team. Rest assured they won't get any father than that."

"All right you filthy weasel, what do you want from us?"

"Naturally, I want you eliminated for good. Of course, I can't arrange that until I defeat you in a duel mister Wheeler. I'm sure you could have guessed that."

"Fine! The loser forfeits his duelling deck and can never challenge anyone to a duel again!"

"Well, it sounds like I've already got you all fired up. Fine then, we won't waste any more time!"

Their duel disks snapped into duel mode, and several hologram generators emerged from the ground. At the same time, pairs of shackles emerged from the ground and snapped themselves onto each duelist's legs.

"This is just an added twist to the game, mister Wheeler. The winner's shackles will unlock, and the loser's won't. I don't think I have to explain any more than that."

"Duel!"

"Duel!"

Mephisto drew his hand. "I'll set one monster in defence mode to start. Your turn, mister Wheeler.

Joey drew his hand. Still in a blind rage from falling for such a huge trap, he didn't even think his opening move through. "I summon Mad Dog of Darkness in attack mode!" In a flash, the monster appeared before him. It let out an unnatural roar and eyed it's opponent hungrily. "Attack! Destroy that monster!" The Dog bounded forward and bit deeply into the face down card. It shook it violently then tossed it aside. The monster revealed itself to be D.D. Warrior Lady. Even though it was heavily damaged from the attack, it threw itself onto the Mad Dog and opened a swirling black vortex that swallowed them both.

"A reckless attack, Wheeler. My Warrior Lady has removed both itself and your Mad Dog of Darkness from play due to your attack. Now I shall summon Pyramid Turtle in attack mode!" A rather short monster whose appearance fit it's name accurately appeared. It yawned slightly. "Attack his lifepoints directly!" The Turtle paused a moment, then charged at Joey. It was not moving fast but it caught him off-guard regardless and knocked him to the ground. His lifepoints dropped to 6800.

This only served to enrage Joey further. He drew his card and was about to summon another monster to attack, when a voice broke through his screaming temper.

"Joey! Stop right there you imbecile!"

Joey turned towards the source of the sound. Through his shaking vision he could barely make out Mokuba. "Good! Now listen to me. If you keep thinking with your anger and not with your brain you're going to lose and everything we've done will be naught! Do you understand?"

Joey responded by yelling and trying to hit Mokuba. Thankfully because of the shackles he was too far away to get to him.

"Joey! I mean it! If you screw this up because you were mad about being tricked then you'll never see anyone again! Not me, not Tristan or Tea or Mai, and certainly not your sister or Yugi for that matter! Now calm down."

Mokuba's words somehow got through Joey's anger. He took a deep breath and tried to clear his mind. After a moment, he felt back to his old self. He nodded to Mokuba and turned back to the duel.

"Yeah, yeah he's right. The only way I can get back at him for tricking us like that is defeating him and rescuing the others." He looked at the Pyramid Turtle, the monster seemed to be distracted by something and it slowly wandered around the room. "I remember reading about this monster. If I destroy it in battle he can summon another monster, he'll probably use it to get out his Vampire Lord and that'll be that. It's a weak monster though, which means he can't do much right now."

"I'll set two cards face down, and summon Swordsman of Landstar in attack mode!" The two cards appeared, and the small Swordsman drew it's sword and smiled cutely. "Your move, ya dirtbag."

"My my, such a temper." He drew his card. "And such predictable moves too. I remember what happened the last time you had your Swordsman and two face down cards in play. Your silly dice trick won't work a second time, I'll use Mystical Space Typhoon on your left card!" He played the card and a small tornado appeared and it moved towards Joey's face down card.

"Looks like you've still got a lot to learn there, shrimp. Well I've got another lesson for ya, and that's to always keep your opponent guessing. I activate the trap, Pharaoh's Treasure!" The trap card disappeared back into Joey's deck a moment before the Typhoon hit it. 

"What is the meaning of this? Why did it return to your deck?"

"Don't worry, you'll be seeing it again real soon, then you'll see exactly what it does."

"It matters not, I can still destroy your monster! Pyramid Turtle, destroy his Swordsman!" The Turtle lazily regarded the Swordsman. It sighed, and began charging at it. A second before it made contact, the Swordsman of Landstar shimmered briefly, and suddenly was covered from head to toe in spiked armour. The Turtle was met with a face full of the metallic thorns and it exploded into colourful polygons and vanished. "What? Your other face down card..."

"Was yet another trap. Tough break there pal, but your monster ran headlong into my Sakuretsu Armour trap card, which destroyed it the moment it attacked my Swordsman."

Mephisto growled dangerously. "I'll set this monster in defence mode and one card face down. Your turn, mister Wheeler."

Joey drew his card and was beaming with confidence. "Man, this duel is gonna be a cinch! He's already fallen for two of my traps. Maybe if I can beat him fast enough I'll have time to get to the others before they're caught too!" His past anger forgotten, he coolly played his next cards. "I'll set one card face down and summon Panther Warrior in attack mode!" The feline warrior stood tall, it snarled like a wildcat and brandished it's sword dangerously. "Now first my Swordsman of Landstar will attack you, and then I'll sacrifice it for Panther Warrior so he can attack! Go!" The two monsters charged at their target. The Swordsman of Landstar attacked head-on, striking Mephisto hard. The minute his attack connected, he vanished and Panther Warrior followed up the attack from behind, throwing Mephisto onto his face. His life points dropped to 5500.

Mephisto only laughed. "You must think you're terribly clever, mister Wheeler. However, since our last duel I have been able to upgrade my deck. In fact, knowing you would fall for our little trap I even tailored it to work against your archaic play style. For this turn I will set two more cards face down, nothing more."

Joey just shrugged. "Sure, whatever you say tough guy." He drew his card. "He couldn't really have a way to counter my moves, could he? Lots of my cards are based on luck, is it possible to turn the luck in his favour? Or is it something more dangerous than that..." He pondered cautiously for a moment, then decided to make his move. "Right, first I'll activate my face down card, Scapegoat." The four fluffy goats appeared and hovered harmlessly above the ground. The moment they came into existence however, something happened that Joey didn't expect. Two gigantic towers exploded out of the ground behind Mephisto. They appeared to consist of four levels, the topmost was cracked and crumbled like something had forcibly crushed it.

"A fascinating discovery, isn't it Wheeler? Gaze in awe at my Tower of Babel trap cards. I certainly hope you're curious what they can do, because come my next turn I'd be glad to show you."

Joey shook his eyes off the two towers before him and back on his monsters. "Fine, I'll sacrifice one of my Scapegoats to attack you directly!" One of the small goats shimmered and disappeared. The Panther Warrior reared up on it's legs and lunged hard towards it's target. However, once it got halfway there, it slowed in midair and stopped, then fell to the ground unable to move any further forward.

"Oh yes, I can't have you depleting my life points now, so I activated my Negate Attack trap card. So sorry. My turn now."

Joey watched his opponent intensely. "He's definitely up to something big with those towers... I wish I knew more about what they do. Hm, he activated it when I played my Scapegoat card, maybe it has something to do with magic cards."

"Now, watch closely at what I'm going to do. I'll set one card face down, then I play the Delinquent Duo Magic card at the cost of 1000 life points." His life points dropped to 4500, and two small goblins appeared. They both flew up to Joey, one of them grabbed his Jinzo card from his hand and giggled gleefully before vanishing. The second one glared at Joey expectantly. He deliberated a moment then handed it a Fissure card, and the goblin promptly vanished like it's brother.

"Now watch the Towers, Wheeler!" Joey looked up in time to see the second level from the top of the towers compact into themselves, looking very much like the floor before it. Bits of stone clattered to the floor below. "You see, every time one of us uses a magic card, another floor of the Towers will crack and crumble. Whoever is responsible for setting off the fourth magic card and crumbling the final floor will get to live through the horror of the towers collapsing upon them, taking 3000 life points each!"

Joey's eyes widened. "So that's it! he's going to lock down the duel by forcing us to stop using magic cards. His deck is probably loaded with monsters and traps to support himself during the lockdown..."

"Now I'll summon another Pyramid Turtle and use the magic card Ring of Magnetism on it. This will lower it's attack and defence by 500 and force you to attack only it. Guess what else Wheeler?" The third floors of the Towers cracked and crumbled, they began wobbling unsteadily. "I'm just about set up to ruin you for good. I end my turn."

Joey drew his card, now becoming nervous. "Well that's just great. If I use a magic card now, I'll take 6000 points of damage. Hm, I have my United we Stand and Mage Power equip cards that I could use to give my Panther warrior a huge boost. I would take a lot of damage, but if I get through it then my Panther should be strong enough to win."

Just as Joey was about to make his move, Mephisto spoke up. "Oh by the way, in case you were getting any ideas of setting off my Towers and getting away with it, I'm going to activate my Just Desserts trap card, lowering your life points by 2000. Go ahead, I believe you were going to make a move?"

Joey grimaced as his life points fell to 4800. "Well, scratch that plan I guess. Man, looks like I can't do anything else this turn. If I attack that Turtle then he'll be able to summon his Vampire Lord. With that thing on the field there wouldn't be much I could do to stop him, if anything."

"No moves you can make? Tough break. My turn." He drew his card. "Ah, and the final piece to my ultimate combo. I summon Ooguchi in attack mode!" The bizarrely shaped monster appeared, and it slouched into a puddle of slime. It looked like some kind of cross between a blue frog and a rat. "This delightful little fellow is able to attack your life points directly. Attack him now Ooguchi!" The disgusting beast licked it's giant lips then spat a large glob of greenish slime at Joey. The goo bypassed his monsters and smacked into him, lowering his life points to 4500. "It's embarrassing, isn't it? Well, take your turn then."

Joey drew his card. "Oh man, still nothing that can help me. I think I'm in a lot of trouble. With those Towers ready to collapse at any moment and that weird frog thing attacking me directly, I'm gonna lose in no time. There's still hope though, as long as my life points hold out long enough I know my deck will see me through."

"Still nothing you can do? Well don't worry, my little Ooguchi may have a suggestion, don't you?" The monster grinned and spat at Joey again, bringing his life points down to 4200.

Their turns passed again much the same, and Joey was down to 3900 life points.

"Mister Wheeler, why don't you just give up? You're not going to win, why don't you simply forfeit and save us this tedium."

"Because giving up isn't what Joey Wheeler is all about, ya rat-faced snot-nosed little punk! I'm on a mission and I'm not gonna let you or your Towers stop me! In fact..." Joey set one card face down. "It's high time I turn this duel around. Oh but please, take your one last turn in the safety of your precious Towers."

"You are delirious, there is no way you can stop my Towers from destroying you, and my Ooguchi will simply eat away at your life points until you have nothing left! Hit him now Ooguchi, and I will set one card face down and end my turn." Joey's life points dropped to 3600.

Joey drew his card. "I sure hope I know what I'm doing."

"Awright Mephisto, here's one more lesson for ya, sometimes you can sacrifice a few life points if it means you can secure a victory. I play the magic card Raigeki! It's magical lightning will make short work of your monsters."

Indeed the lightning struck the Ooguchi and Pyramid Turtle, destroying them instantly. Suddenly there was a tremendous sound, like the earth itself had split open. The final floor of the Towers of Babel were crushed. The towers slowly began to crumble and fall towards Joey. The noise was almost painful to bear.

"You fool, you cannot withstand the damage from both Towers! You have just destroyed yourself!"

"Not quite, I activate my trap card Barrel Behind the Door! This trap card takes non-combat damage inflicted to me and sends it right back at my opponent!" With that, Joey's card shone briefly and vanished. One of the Towers seemed to shudder, then began falling towards Mephisto.

"You fool! You may not deplete our life points fully but the damage caused by the Towers may kill the both of us now! What kind of duelist... what kind of a MAN would risk his life like that?!"

Joey had no time to respond, he could only throw his arms up in a feeble attempt to defend himself against a stone tower collapsing upon him. Both towers landed hard and the duelists were completely buried in the rubble. A few seconds later, the rubble disappeared leaving both duelists sprawled out on the floor, injured and not moving. A few minutes later, they came to and began rising to their feet.

"What kind of a man, you ask? A man that cares about his friends and family, a man who will gladly sacrifice himself to protect those he loves. In other words... a man just like me!"

"You are even stupider than I thought. I set these three cards face down. With this vast array of trap cards, you have no hope of winning. You will lose, and you will let down those people you love. It looks like your pathetic sacrifice was for nothing."

"Looks like we have time for one last lesson. It's the most basic one of them all. Trust in your deck, and you will never lose. I draw the Pharaoh's Treasure card that I activated at the beginning of the duel. You see, when I played this card initially it was returned to my deck face up. When I draw it now, I send it to the graveyard and I am able to take another card from my graveyard and add it to my hand. I'm gonna take back my Jinzo that you so graciously discarded with your Delinquent Duo, and then sacrifice my Panther Warrior to summon it!"

The Panther Warrior disappeared, replaced by the tall cybernetic monstrosity known as Jinzo. The android raised it's arms and sent out waves of red energy towards Mephisto, reducing his life points to zero. The monsters disappeared, and Mephisto merely slumped to the floor sliently. He snapped his fingers, and the shackles around Joey's legs unlocked and fell to the ground with a clatter. He then removed his duel disk and tossed it to Mokuba, who removed the deck from it as per the conditions of the duel.

Joey limped towards the now open exit, Mokuba carefully helping to support his battered and bruised body. He paused before leaving and turned back slightly. "I'll come back for you. I'm not the kinda guy that would just leave someone alone to die. I don't know which of the two would be worse. If you help the people rebuild their society after we crumble KaibaCorp, I'm sure the they could forgive you. You could go on living, even though you made terrible mistakes."

Mephisto said nothing, he continued to stare at the stony floor. Joey and Mokuba exited the room and the door slid shut silently.

  
  


So it was a trap all along! Joey doesn't have much time to recover from his last duel, here's hoping the others haven't met up with any of the other top 3. Next chapter, Joey is challenged to another duel, and what has become of the rest of the group?


	9. Chapter 9 Fire and Fellowship

I did promise to finish this, didn't I? Not to say it's finished yet, that is. The last while has been more than a little busy, I had a lot of deadlines to meet and I was totally out of the energy reserved for writing. However, it's summer time now, and a new Yu-Gi-Oh! set with more exciting deck potential has just been released, which means I'll be updating like never before. In theory, this story will come to a close before September. In theory. We'll just have to see where this story is gonna take us, eh? As a matter of fact, to give myself a little more leeway, I'm gonna hike up the rating a tad. Things won't get that bad I'm sure, but you never know. At any rate, here we go!

To be sure, I still don't own Yu-Gi-Oh or any of that jazz.

Joey and Mokuba closed the door to the false jail and left Mephisto behind them. Joey's injuries began to subside and he was able to walk on his own soon. He and Mokuba broke into a run to meet up with their missing comrades.

Mokuba clenched his fists tightly. "I can't believe it, all this time they knew I had access to their information. I led us straight into their hands without knowing it. I'll make them pay for what they've done." He pulled out his laptop and opened it. They rounded a corner into a stairwell and paused. "They may know I have access, but they didn't falsify any information other than that prison. In one minute the guards will be out of the way upstairs. We should make our way to the duel research department. They appear to have a prison there to hold test subjects. They subject people to different card effects and fine tune them to make them as realistic as possible."

Joey was shocked. "So you're saying that Yugi and Kaiba are being caged like lab rats and are part of some twisted experiment?"

Mokuba nodded quietly. "Okay, get ready Joey. We take a left and head up the stairs until we hit the large door." They hurried up the stairs and out the door. They took a sharp left and up another stairway. They stopped in front of a large door that was laden with technology designed to keep something in and everything else out. Mokuba regarded the door critically. "This will take a second. Keep an eye out while I crack this walnut."

Joey nodded. He pulled Mephisto's deck from his pocket and searched through it. "As long as I have this, I might as well make use of it. Maybe there's something in here that will help me." He came across a card that had been used against him once before long ago and thumbed it thoughtfully. Joey stuffed the deck, minus the card he picked out, back into his pocket and turned back to Mokuba. A series of clicks and whirrs resounded through the great door and it began to open slowly. It was dark inside the room at first, a few lights came up when the door opened half way, jamming in place at that point.

It looked like a large laboratory at first glance. At second glance, you would notice the holographic projectors set up in the far corner in what was clearly a duel arena. If you put two and two together, it was obviously a laboratory set up to study duels. However, something was very wrong with the picture. It looked as if the lab had been torn apart. Thick glass barriers were shattered, the solid metal walls and ceiling were cracked and crumbling, there were what appeared to be fist marks made by a giant on some parts of the walls and large burned gashes in others.

"Mokuba, are you seein' what I'm seein'?" Mokuba could only nod in response. "Looks like giant monsters tore the place apart or somethin'." Joey looked around on the floor. Among the broken glass and equipment sat several people in lab coats. They were terrified beyond control, clutching their eyes shut and mumbling something about evil beasts coming for them. "Man, I hope I don't run into whatever got to these guys." Joey was suddenly struck with a sense of deja vu, and the memory of Marik's divine beast unleashing it's wrath upon him flashed before his eyes. He shook his head to clear the vision. "...Or did I already run into something like it before..."

A small sound coming from a dark corner broke the two from their thoughts. A tall, lanky man dressed in a lab coat emerged into the scarce light. He was wearing a duel disk that appeared to be somewhat damaged, not unlike his similarly disshevelled clothing. He stood before Joey and stared up at him. He stepped forth slowly and clutched Joey's shoulders and began sobbing. Mokuba clenched his fists. "YOU!" he roared, making Joey nearly leap out of his skin. "I know you, you're Baal of KaibaCorp's top three!"

Joey stepped back and regarded the man. He was still crying, something had tormented him beyond reason. Joey decided to take the chance of it being another trap. "Yo fella, are you okay?" he asked.

Mokuba grabbed Joey's arm fiercely. "Joey, do you who this guy is? He's the one in charge of KaibaCorp's research and development. He's the one who must have been holding Yugi and Seto here!"

Joey shook his head firmly. "Mokuba, take a look at this guy. He's in no condition to do anything right now, least of all get all rowdy and start a duel." He turned back towards the man. "Now tell me buddy, you are Baal of KaibaCorp's top three, right?" The man could only nod in response. "What happened here? If you can tell me then maybe I can fix it."

The man stared into Joey's eyes so fiercely that Joey couldn't bear to look into them for more than a moment. "It was..." he began, his voice shaking. "We... we were cocky, we never should have tried to control them... control those things... and now it's too late. I thought I was skilled enough to handle it, but I clearly was not. Their wrath is terrible, it was a nightmare. And then we created HIM... we thought he could control them, and he turned on us. But it was... Diablo. The man we call Diablo who started all this..." The man could say no more, he fell to the floor and went silent.

Mokuba stepped up to Joey. "You don't think he was talking about... you know..."

Joey clutched his shoulders tightly, in his mind he could feel the Winged Dragon of Ra's deadly attack burning him. "Yeah, I know." he said. He looked around the room until his eyes came upon a doorway. It was just the door frame, the door itself had been torn from it's hinges and cast aside carelessly. "There, that's where we'll find who did this, who hurt these people and is now hurting Yugi and Kaiba. You ready Mokuba?" he didn't wait for his response before approaching the door. He stepped through it with no hesitation.

Joey had been expecting the worst, but even so he was completely unprepared for what he saw. The room was a page from every horror story there ever was. The walls were drenched in a red substance that Joey could only hope wasn't what he feared it to be. Chained up against the walls were the second half of Joey's party; Tea, Mai, and Tristan. The ceiling was the most disturbing, amid a red fog that loomed overhead were large, inhuman eyes staring back at Joey, following him. At the far end of the room was a throne, carved perfectly out of shining white marble. Sitting on the throne was the one person that Joey had hoped not to see, and unfortunately expected to find eventually.

The raspy voice echoed from the shadow. "Hello Joey Wheeler. It has been too long since we last met."

"Bakura!"

The character in the throne stood, his long, white hair flowing out behind him, his eyes glowing bright purple with his hatred and malaice like a deadly beacon to all he looked upon. Hanging from his neck was his ever-present Millennium Ring. He wore a tight black jumpsuit adorned with spikes and skulls.

"I am flattered you remember me, but not entirely surprised. Skill like my own only comes once every Millennium."

Joey wanted to punch Bakura as soon as he spoke those words. "What are ya talkin' about ya freak? Yugi was twice the duelist you ever were, he beat you at Duelist Kingdom and in Battle City too..."

Bakura spat at Joey. "Do not mention the name of the Pharaoh, or his host for that matter, in my presence, mortal."

"What did you do with Yugi and Kaiba? And what happened to all those scientists out there? Tell me everything right now!"

Bakura laughed. "I am glad you asked, I do so love a good story. Your friends here asked the same thing, only they got a little upset right as it was getting good. I had to put them to sleep to stop their whining. However, if you will keep your mouth shut it would be my pleasure to tell you this story of my rise to power."

"I arrived in this future about 10 years ago, before any of your pathetic group wound up here. It didn't take long before for KaibaCorp recognized my supreme talents and wisely took me in as their third master duelist. A few short years later, the little Pharaoh and that oaf Tristan decided to barge in and spoil my fun. I decided to conceal my identity during the duel and thanks to the awesome power of my occult deck, little Yugi fell to my might. That labrat you passed on the way in, Baal, decided he wanted to study Yugi and his deck. Unfortunately for him he could not create any simulations difficult enough to challenge the Pharaoh sufficiently to get the data he wanted. The fool was about to give up, when who should arrive but that Kaiba fellow. By then the good doctor had began unlocking the power of the God cards, so that cocky fool wasted no time defeating him and locking him up, same as the Pharaoh. He then forced them to duel each other to collect all the data he could want. He was so delighted to see his little experiment produce such excellent results..."

Mokuba nearly ran straight for Bakura to hit him, his face flushed with rage. A quick, firm shake of Joey's head held him fast, but only just barely. Joey understood what Mokuba was going through at that moment, but it was important to hear Bakura out.

"Now, as you mentioned earlier, the little Pharaoh did manage a victory against me in Battle City thanks to his Slifer the Sky Dragon. Ever since then I have yearned to control the power of the God cards and take my revenge. The good doctor managed to scrounge up enough information to help me defeat Slifer, and so I did just that. Time and time again I would force Yugi to summon his God card and destroy it right before his eyes. Oh how he did scream and cry, it was most delightful. I never managed to make him beg however, I suppose he has the Pharaoh in his puzzle to thank for that. Unfortunately, my fun did not come without a certain price. It seems that while Yugi's spirit was unbreakable, the God's spirits were downright rebellious. Not to long ago as a matter of fact, Slifer and Obelisk decided to give us a real show of their power, and I believe you saw the results."

Bakura laughed out loud, a terrifying cacaophony that assaulted Joey and Mokuba from every direction. "That fool Baal should have know that the powers of the Egyptian Gods could not be controlled on a whim! It was simply delicious to watch them suffer! Not only that, but I also now have little Yugi and Kaiba to play with!"

Joey didn't need to hear any more. Silently, he stepped forward and slid his deck into his duel disk.

"Oh, what is this? The little understudy of Yugi wishes to face his teacher's superior? And I suppose you want me to release my prisoners if you win? Touching, but what is in it for me? Your pathetic life and your weak cards mean nothing to me, so don't bother offering those. However, what does interest me is the location of your little secret base of operations. I want to know where all you little rebellious ants live so I may enslave the lot of you! I will have control of all of Japan before long, and the world soon after! Well?"

Joey activated his duel disk, and it snapped into duel mode.

"I see. So be it! This is the beginning of your end little man! No mortal has any hope of defeating me!" Bakura activated his duel disk.

"Duel!"

"Duel!"

Bakura drew his card. "I'll go first, I prefer to hasten this duel so my final conquest may begin soon! I shall set two cards face down and summon Mystic Tomato in attack mode!" The air shimmered before him, and a rather sinister looking tomato appeared and snarled at Joey. "Your move."

Joey drew his card. "If I destroy that Tomato, he'll use it's effect to summon another monster from his deck. It's risky, but if I can get a life point advantage quickly I may be able to force him to reveal his strategy early."

"I set one card face down, and I summon Berserk Gorilla in attack mode!" The large gorilla appeared, and it immediately attacked the Tomato without any command from Joey. The Tomato was obliterated, and Bakura's life points dropped to 7400. "He may force himself to attack every turn, but that just means plenty of butt-kicking!"

Bakura only shook his head and summoned a Giant Germ from his deck. "What a simpleton. Do you really think just attacking me outright will solve anything? Observe my magic card, Creature Swap! It will switch control of my Giant Germ and your Berserk Gorilla, and I promise you won't like the results." With that, the Germ and Gorilla switched places. Almost immediately the Gorilla reared up and tore the Germ apart, which then sprayed Joey with a poisonous cloud that lowered his lifepoints by 500. Then the two halves of the Giant Germ twisted and bubbled into two new Germs on Bakura's side of the field, which then also attacked Joey.

Joey moaned in pain, his life points dropped to 4500. "I told you you wouldn't like the results. Make your move so I may destroy you!"

Joey drew his card, and almost laughed out loud. "Bakura, I know all about how your deck works from Yugi. You try to destroy your opponent's hand and keep lots of monsters with weird effects on the field. Well, I've got a little surprise for ya. I figured that eventually I would have to duel ya, seems to be the way it is with you; wherever Yugi is there's someone trying to get him. I prepared my deck while you were telling us your little story about how you hurt my best friend. In fact, I got the last card I needed a few minutes before we came in here. Allow me to introduce it to you!" Joey picked a card out of his hand and flicked it at Bakura, who caught it. His eyes went wide.

"What? How can your deck have a card like this? That isn't your play style! This is impossible!"

"Aw, cry me a river and go soak yer head. Now sacrifice your two Germs and play it!"

Bakura growled and slid his two Germs into his graveyard and played the card. A large steel cage appeared around him, followed by a large chain connected to the cage, followed by a gigantic lava monster attached to the chain. "How could a weak duelist like you have a card like Lava Golem and know how to use it?"

"Easy! While you've been sittin' on your butt making everyone's lives miserable, I've been gaining experience duelling! I know how to use it because Marik used it on me way back in Battle City, and I got one from a friend of yours, Mephisto. He never got the chance to use it himself, but it's sure coming through for me now." Joey set another card face down. "Now come on, I ain't got all day."

Bakura was furious, his Millennium Ring glowed with equal anger. "I do not take kindly to being made fun of! Now feel the flames of your own Lava Golem! Attack now!" The Golem's fireball attack didn't go far, Joey activated a trap card and Bakura found the molten lava streaking straight back towards him. He howled in pain as the lava burned his life points down to 3400.

"Now here's a little trick I learned from Yugi, called Magic Cylinder. It takes your attack and sends it directly back at your life points. Care to try again?"

Bakura called for the Gorilla to attack, but it fell short when three mages robed in purple stood between it and Joey.

"And here's something that Tea used to use against me, way back when I first started playing, Waboku. It'll reduce the damage your monsters do to me all the way down to zero. My turn now."

Joey drew his card, and Bakura's fury only grew. "That is enough, mortal! It is time for me to reveal my ultimate weapon!" Bakura activated his card, and a large ouija board appeared behind him. "My Destiny Board! Life points or not, in only a few turns you will lose! And to ensure your Golem does not harm me further, I activate Solomon's Lawbook. This card will allow me to skip my next standby phase, thus rendering the Golem's effect useless for that turn."

Joey only shook his head slowly. He was practically glowing with confidence. "Trust me, you won't last long enough to use your little board game against me. First I'll summon Exiled Force, and activate it's effect to destroy Berserk Gorilla." A small group of shady men appeared, they grabbed hold of the Berserk Gorilla, tying it up with ropes and restraining it. Once they subdued the Gorilla, it and the Exiled Force slowly vanished from sight. "And now I'll set this card face down."

The hands of the Destiny Board revealed the letter 'I' and Bakura drew his card. "If you are so confident, then let us raise the stakes a little in the Shadow Realm!" The room darkened slightly and a red mist filled the room. Everyone else vanished from sight, leaving the two in a seemingly empty room. "Whoever loses this duel shall not escape with their life! What do you think of that?"

"I think I activate my Scapegoat magic card, giving me four adorable little defenders." The four goats shimmered into existence, hovering harmlessly a foot above the floor.

"Your weak defense is meaningless to me! I shall remove my three Giant Germs from the game permanently to summon my ultimate beast; Dark Necrofear!" What little light still present in the room began to fade, drawn towards an unseen entity. Soon only the hot glow of the Lava Golem was visible, and only just barely. Deep within the darkness a figure shifted, then rose to it's full height. It's eyes shone an unnatural green, and in a nauseating wave all the light in the room swirled and bent back into place. The female demon carefully shifted the shattered doll in her arms and both screamed at Joey, a sound that could peel paint off walls struck him like a bulldozer. Joey couldn't help but shudder, but kept his confident poise. "My monster shall feed upon your strongest monsters, turning them against you. Not only that, but the clock keeps ticking as more letters of your death message are revealed! Feel the despair of the darkness, attack my mighty beasts!" The Lava Golem and Dark Necrofear struck two of Joey's Scapegoats. "Your move, mortal."

Joey drew his card. "Man, this guy is stubborn all the way to the end. I know all about that Necrofear's special abilities. If I destroy it, it'll be able to take over one of my monsters. Fortunately I just drew the card I needed to stop this guy cold."

"I'll set two cards face down, and then play Level Limit Area B." A large machine rose from the ground, in the center of which was a gateway with a large B in the center. The machine activated and what looked like a laser gun unfolded from the top. It swung around and pointed at Necrofear and Lava Golem. It fired on them both, surrounding them briefly in a green light. Necrofear took a step back and sunk to her knees, and the Lava Golem's firely glow dimmed. "This will turn all monsters that are level 4 or higher into defense mode, and there they'll stay until this card is destroyed. Back to you, freakshow."

The Destiny Board revealed the letter 'N'. Bakura drew his card, and almost immediately a splash of firey lava struck him in the back. Bakura actually seemed to savour the pain, even as his lifepoints dropped to 2400. "Fool, it doesn't matter that my monsters cannot attack, you will still be destroyed by my Destiny Board. However, in a shadow game I leave nothing to chance. I shall activate this Mystical Space Typhoon, which will dismantle your gate and allow my monsters to attack once more!"

The twister barely had time to form before it faded away. Joey laughed, "Sorry, but I can't have you doing that, so I used Magic Jammer to stop your Typhoon at the cost of one card in my hand. My move." Joey ended his turn quickly, and the board revealed 'A'. The Lava Golem dropped Bakura's lifepoints to 1400.

"You fool, what kind of strategy is this? At the end of your next turn my Destiny Board will banish you to the Shadow Realm for eternity! You will lose all your friends and your mind!"

Joey shrugged. "We'll see, won't we?"

"Take your last turn so we may end this farce of a duel."

Joey drew his card. "This is it, I've gotta time this just right or it won't work." He looked up at Bakura and grinned. "I end my turn."

Bakura's Millennium Ring shone triumphantly. "This is the end fool! Prepare to be banished forever!" The hands moved toward the last letter, 'L'. The five letters swirled into the air, spelling out FINAL. They began fading to black, a portal opened beneath them and a massive clawed hand emerged from the vortex and reached out to grab Joey.

Joey stared at the gigantic hand that threatened to drag him into the darkness forever. "Awright, on three... THREE!" Joey activated his face down card. From the darkness twin red beams shot forth and struck the letter 'F' in the death message. The letter crackled and sparked with red energy. The massive beast within the vortex screamed, the sound bringing both duelists to their knees, and the arm withdrew into the portal just as it closed and vanished. The letters returned to the ouija board, the F still burning red hot with the energy that struck it from nowhere.

Bakura dragged himself to his feet. "What is this? I don't understand! My death message should have destroyed you, it's unstoppable!"

Joey laughed. "Not entirely unstoppable. Despite it's awesome power, the key component of your little trick is nothing more than a trap card. As such, it has the exact same weaknesses." Joey pointed his thumb behind him. Standing at it's full 8 feet and clutching a glowing golden rope was Jinzo, it's eyes shining red. "So I tossed my Jinzo into the graveyard with my Magic Jammer and revived him just now with my Rope of Life. He negated your Destiny Board right before it took full effect."

"But why would you wait until right now to use it? You could have activated that any time!"

"Take a look at the field, I'd rather not spell it out for someone who think's he's such a bigshot."

Bakura looked at his duel disk. The Lava Golem loomed above him, threatening to drain his lifepoints away. He looked at the five pieces of his Destiny Board occupying every slot in the bottom row. Bakura growled. "I am unable to activate any magic or trap cards because my Destiny Board has taken up all five slots! I cannot do anything to negate your Level Limit card or destroy the Lava Golem! I locked myself down with my own ultimate weapon..."

"Wee-eel, I guess you ARE a bigshot after all, figuring that out all by yourself. You probably also know that means Lava Golem will toast the last of your lifepoints pretty soon." As if on cue, a mass of molten rock poured onto Bakura. This time the pain was enough to make even Bakura howl in agony, portions of his costume burning away revealing his singed skin.

"Well then, it seems I am unable to make a move, so I shall end my turn."

"And it seems I don't NEED to make a move now, so I end my turn."

True to his style, Bakura looked up at the Lava Golem, then back to Joey, and laughed. "You may have me beat, Joey. I shall commend you for this one victory only. To congradulate you, I have a little gift for you, something that I guarantee you will keep with you forever after! Farewell Wheeler!" Bakura's Millennium Ring flashed briefly and he fell to his knees. His hair and eyes softened, and he began crying. He looked up at Joey, his gentle features wracked with fear and pain.

"Oh no, the spirit of the Ring has switched himself out, now it's the real Bakura!"

Bakura tried to stand, but his legs gave out quickly and he fell hard. He looked up at Joey with his tearful eyes. "Joey," he spoke in a raspy and broken voice, "I'm so sorry for this. If you get us back to our own time then it will be like none of this ever happened, everyone will be back to normal. You must... you must hurry, put this duel behind you, forget about me and save the others." He pulled a small object from his pocket and tossed it to Joey. It skittered to a stop at his feet.

Joey kept his eyes fixed on his fallen friend. "But Bakura, if you don't come back with us then you might not be there! I won't take that risk, there has to be a way to save you! Lava Golem, stop! Don't hurt him!"

The Golem paid no mind to Joey. It slowly rose and began curving itself into a large wave, preparing to crash down on Bakura. Bakura clutched the iron bars of the cage that surrounded him. "Joey please! You are the only one who can do this!" The Golem began it's slow descent, it was seconds away from crashing down.

"Bakura!" There was nothing Joey could do. His feet were frozen in place, he stood paralyzed as Bakura's final cries of anguish echoed around the room as the Lava monster crashed down upon him. The mound of lava remained motionless, the cage and Bakura entirely covered under the searing hot beast. The room was dead quiet, even the Dark Necrofear still in defense mode on the field was eerily silent. Soon both it and the Lava Golem vanished, as did Joey's cards. The dark fog of the Shadow Realm lifted and he was back in the real world.

The room looked rather plain with the absence of the Millennium magic it once contained, the walls and ceiling were the same metallic tiling as the rest of the building. Joey lowered his head as his tears began to fall. He looked at the object that Bakura had thrown to him, it was a small key. Joey picked it up, wiping away a tear that had fallen on it with his thumb. He looked about the room, his unconcious friends began to wake, apparantly even Mokuba succumbed to the dark power as they entered the Shadow Realm. Joey walked over to the wall and began unlocking the chains that bound his friends. He dropped the key onto the ground as he finished, and sunk to his knees in silence. Tea was the first to her senses, and she kneeled next to Joey. "Bakura... the real Bakura..." Joey gasped out, "I sent him to an eternity in the darkness because I wanted to destroy the spirit in the Ring. I didn't have a choice, did I? If I didn't win then all my friends would be gone. But then why do I feel so..."

Tea slid her hand onto Joey's cheek and kissed him. They stayed frozen in their gentle embrace for a moment, until the sound of someone clearing their throat broke them apart. They looked back to see Mokuba, Tristan, and Mai standing awkwardly behind them. Mai blushed a little. "Sorry guys," she said softly, "but this is a pretty bad place to take a break. There seems to be a small room hidden in the back there, Mokuba, we have enough time to take a little break now?" Mokuba looked at her like she was crazy for suggesting a break, but gave an uneasy nod. "We can take five in there then, come on hun, on your feet."

Joey took a deep breath and Tea helped pull him to his feet. They slid their arms around each other and began slowly making their way to the door. Tristan was ahead of them, he carefully peeled the concealed door off the wall to reveal the hidden room. He peeked into the room and let out a sharp yelp in surprise. "You guys, get over here now! Look who I found!" The group made their way to the door and peered into the dimly lit room. It was hard to see, but there was no mistaking the two figures that were slumped over on the floor, the soft sounds of their laboured breathing felt like the only sound in existence.

"It's Yugi and Kaiba!"

"Seto!"

Joey staggered forward and fell to the ground next to his best friend. He ran his fingertips along the young man's slender face, as if making sure he was really there. His shirt was gone, revealing his thinning body that was covered with dozens of scars, large and small. Where there weren't scars there were burns and long gashes. His eyes were open a tiny sliver, gleaming with tears. He managed to squeeze out a single whisper, "Joey?"

Joey smiled and nodded. "It's good to see ya man, you look... well, it's good to see ya."

Yugi smiled, something he had apparantly not done in a long time, and let out a sigh. His body went limp and his breathing slowed as he fell deep into sleep.

Joey looked up at where Mokuba had gone to meet Kaiba. Mokuba was in tears, holding his brother's battered and bruised body close. Kaiba had apparantly lost his white coat at some point, and his tight black jumpsuit was torn and stained from his many wounds. Mokuba draped his own coat on him and continued to hold him. "I knew I would find you, brother. Everything is gonna be fine now..."

Whether the energy drained by his duels, the terror of losing Bakura, or the relief of finding Yugi and Kaiba, or a combination of all three, Joey's body gave way to exhaustion in a split second. Tea wrapped her arms around him and slowly eased him up against her. Joey's body tensed a moment as the pain of his duels hit him one last time as the adrenaline finally ran it's course, causing his wounds to finally give way. Despite the mess, Tea continued to hold Joey as he sunk into sleep.

Bakura is gone, but if he's right then he won't be gone for long. Tea has pretty much revealed her feelings to Joey, and they've finally found Yugi and Kaiba. There isn't much time to rest, however. Who was this mysterious character that was spoken of, he who may be able to control the God cards? Is it possible? You won't have long to wait for the next chapter! (at least, certainly not as long as you did for this one.)


	10. Chapter 10 Nemesis and Faith

Sorry about the super long update time. Had to get settled into college, blah blah blah, long story short is I haven't forgotten about this story. So, the long awaited chapter 10 is here.

So we're still clear, I don't own YuGiOh or anything of the sort.

"Joey please! you are the only one who can do this!" Bakura's voice echoed through the room. The sound of the Lava Golem preparing to crash down on the cage beneath it was growing. Joey grabbed the bars of his cage and shook them hard, there was no escape. He was a prisoner of the Lava Golem. Joey could only stare in horror as the wave of Lava collapsed on top of him. His body burned...

Joey sat up sharply and let out a yelp. It took him a few moments to orient himself once more. He looked around, Tristan was lying up against the wall asleep, Yugi was unconscious next to him. On the other side of the room, Mokuba was leaning Kaiba up against his shoulder as both slept. There was no sign of Mai. He looked down, Tea had fallen asleep close to him, he was surprised he had not woken her. Joey scratched his head and silently rose to his feet. There was no sleeping after a nightmare like that. He was about to look for Mai when a small noise attracted his attention. He looked down to see Yugi beginning to wake up.

"Joey?" Yugi tried to lift his hand. "Joey, are you there?"

Joey quickly went to his side and took his hand. "Yeah man, I'm right here."

Yugi smiled, something it seemed he had not done in a long time. "Good. I wasn't just dreaming. Joey, you have to be ready for him..."

Joey frowned. "Ready for who? KaibaCorp's top three are toast, there's nothing left to defend the president."

Yugi closed his eyes. "He's a monster. He's unstoppable. But, I have faith in you Joey, I always did." He set his puzzle, which he had an unbreakable grip on until that point, onto the ground and tried to find something in his pocket. It looked like the effort was extremely painful for him.

Joey gently placed the hand onto his puzzle again. "What's up dude? Something in your pocket?" He plucked the item, a Duel Monsters card, from the pocket. "Oh? This is..."

"Joey, I want you to use that. It's the only card I have left. The only one he didn't get. You need that to stop him." Before he could say anything else, he fell back asleep.

Joey looked at the card. Reluctantly he slid it into his nearby duel disk. At that moment, the door slid open. The air in the doorway shimmered and Mai appeared out of thin air. She was breathing hard. "Sorry kids, nap time is over!" She shouted. Everyone began to rise, except Yugi and Kaiba.

Tea rubbed her eyes. "What's going on, Mai?"

"There's a cleanup crew and investigation team in the lab. It's only a matter of time before they find us here."

Mokuba growled. "I KNEW we shouldn't have stopped here." He opened his laptop. "They've lost contact with the top three, so they've gone to full alert. Fortunately we're near the top, so most of the security teams will be on the floors below us.

Tristan cracked his knuckles. "I guess this means we'll have to fight our way to the top!"

Mokuba sighed. "I suppose so, there's really no other way right now. I can get us onto the top floor, only the president is allowed up there, they couldn't follow us there."

Tea frowned. "That means there'd be no way down. If we go up we couldn't possibly fight our way back."

Mokuba nodded. "This was a one-way trip from the beginning guys. I'm sure you all realized that... but there's no time to think, we have to go now if we're going to make it." Mokuba pulled his brother to his feet. Kaiba was disoriented and still mostly asleep, he could barely stand let alone understand what was happening. Joey hoisted Yugi onto his back. "Mai, Tristan, you two are going to have to handle the guards."

Mai's gloved hands crackled with electricity. "Now you're talking! You ready big guy?"

Tristan grinned and stood in front of the thick door that separated them from the laboratory. "Ready when you are!"

Joey prepared himself to run. "Let's go for it!" With that, Tristan swung his giant robotic arm into the door. It crumpled and burst off it's hinges and flew across the laboratory, knocking some surprised guards out cold. Tristan and Mai wasted no time, they charged into the room and the fight began. Mai's electric gloves paralyzed whoever she hit and Tristan was throwing people around like rag dolls. However, despite their efforts, for every one they knocked down two more took their place.

Mai turned to the group. "You guys will have to go without us, you're not going to make it if you hang around and wait for us! MOVE IT!" She knocked down guards to reach Tristan, who was completely covered in guards trying to bring him down.

Joey hesitated only for a second. "You heard her, let's get going, they can handle themselves!" The group charged down the hallway towards the elevator. As they rounded the corner they were faced by another guard, equipped with a duel disk.

The guard sneered. "You aren't going anywhere unless you can beat me in a duel!"

Tea stepped forward and slid her deck into her duel disk. "You guys keep going, I'll catch up once I take care of him!"

Joey nodded. "Don't take too long, grab Mai and Tristan on your way up." Joey and Mokuba entered the final corridor and entered the elevator. Mokuba set Kaiba down and keyed a short sequence into his laptop, and the elevator began it's ascent.

"That'll do it. The others have keycards I programmed to let them up here when they're ready."

Joey carefully set Yugi down. "Argh, man this is no good, we should be getting Yugi and Kaiba some help, not dragging them around this tower."

Mokuba regarded his brother with sorrow. "Yeah I know, but it's too late now. All we can do is play this thing out now that it's started."

"What are we playing towards, exactly? What's waiting for us up there?"

"Well, it's just the presidents office, really. You'll have to defeat him in a duel of course. It shouldn't be hard, after all he surrounded himself with the best duelists he could find, he's not that strong a player now because he had people to do the dirty work for him."

"Good. The sooner we get outta here the better." Joey looked at Yugi mournfully, he appeared more and more beat up every time he looked at him. The elevator finally hit the top, the door slid open to reveal another large, particularly ornate door. It was solid chrome, with a warrior fighting a dragon carefully painted in gold.

Mokuba regarded the door carefully with his laptop. Very suddenly, he slammed his fist on the wall. "Argh, I can't believe this!"

Joey was crestfallen. "What now?"

"The door's code rotates every few seconds. That means if we have any hope of getting the others in and everyone out, I have to stay here and constantly input the new codes."

Joey nodded. "Yeah, don't worry about it man, you can keep an eye on Yugi and Kaiba."

"Yeah but... it's just, I wanted to take a shot at that president guy. He sentenced me to exile from the company, and it was almost the end of me. I want to make him pay for his crimes."

Joey flashed his trademark smile. "No worries man, when I get done with that guy, there won't be enough left of him to fill a teaspoon! Now open up that door and lemme at 'im!"

The door slowly opened. Joey slid his deck into his duel disk and entered, head held high. "I promise, to all of you, I'll stop this guy and free this world.

The room was the kind that you would expect of the president of the penultimate corporation. The light in the room was soft, almost an intimate atmosphere, the sources were a fireplace and a dozen or so well-placed candles. The air held a pleasant aroma, like that of a garden of flowers, a distant sort of natural sweetness. The soft blue carpet contrasted the hard, marble walls. Both were incredibly clean, as if they were brand new. The furniture in the room was homely, it was so new that you could still smell the leather. The deep reds and golds served to heighten their apparent value. Soft classical music was faintly audible from an unseen source. The room was so luxurious, so comfortable, one could almost lose themself in it just by standing there. In the very center of the room was a large, reddish, oak executive table. The only contrast to the room was what lay atop the table.

The president of KaibaCorp.

Slumped over, stiff as the wood the table was made from.

Dead.

Joey made no movements at all, indeed he had even stopped breathing. To disturb this scene of luxury and loss, the painting of a lavish life and a terrible death would be... sacrilegious.

A glimmer of something in a dark corner caught his eye, and he dared to glance towards it.

A figure deep within the darkness shifted as it felt his gaze. "I knew you would come." the voice called out. It was a lighthearted voice, but carried a sense of maturity with it too. "It was inevitable. I suppose you could call it destiny, but when dark magic is involved you can never be sure what is destiny and what is simply... chance."

The figure shifted closer to Joey, closer to the light. "But then, I suppose the same can be asked for anybody, any situation. Where does chance end and destiny begin? When the die is cast, is the result really what is read on the die itself, or is it the one who cast it who determines the result? You, Joey Wheeler, are an excellent example of this. Your character lends itself to a certain... recklessness. Your dueling strategies reflect this, in the cards you use. Time Wizard, Graceful Dice and Skull Dice, all cards that are based on chance. There are plenty of other cards, not as powerful mind you, that could be used safely, with no chance involved. Still you persist in your risky strategies. Do you know why?"

The figure moved a little closer. He was at least as tall as Joey, he was wearing a trenchcoat that flared straight out in the back. "Because it is not actually chance that determines the outcome of those strategies, it is you, Joey. Whether you need to roll a six, or flip a heads or tails, the odds and the statistics don't apply to you. Nothing determines the result but you. Destiny has seen you through those times, and destiny has brought you here."

The figure moved ever closer. His hair was styled into dozens of small points, he looked almost to be wearing a crown. "Chance has nothing to do with our meeting here, either. Ever since you faced the young Yugi Moto head to head at Duelist Kingdom, ever since you nearly brought Seto Kaiba down at Battle City, this match was decided. Your arriving here in the future is no coincidence, I assure you, nor was it simply an accident. You and I were meant to have one final, deciding battle. Although, perhaps I should say, you and us."

The figure stepped forward once more, entering the light from a nearby candle. Joey was speechless. It was not Yugi, it was not Kaiba, it was a bizarre and twisted combination of the two. He stood at Kaiba's height, wearing his trademark Battle City trenchcoat. His jumpsuit underneath adorned with belts and straps in the same gothic style as Yugi. His purple and golden hair was shorter than Yugi's, but framed his youthful face with the same sense of regality. His eyes were narrow, one a cold blue and the other an insightful violet. A classic Kaiba smirk was set across the young face of Yugi.

"I know what you're thinking." he said. "What sort of heinous magic could produce this disturbing mixture of your best friend and your most hated rival?"

Joey remained silent.

"Ah yes, you tend to stay out of the whole magic thing. Well, you'll be glad to know that this is purely the result of science. The president of KaibaCorp found Yugi and Seto and was enthralled by their incredible dueling skills. Naturally he could not make either do his bidding, so he decided instead to create me using traits from them. As I grew, I recieved constant training based on the strategies of Yugi and Seto. I'm sure you remember the laboratory, they would be made to duel constantly, sometimes for entire days on end."

Joey clenched his fists at this, his eyes widened in anger. Still, he dared not make a move.

"Ahh, that got you going. Now, I quickly became a mighty duelist indeed, able to outmatch both Yugi and Seto. But what would always elude both myself and the president were those god cards. A tricky bit of business, those cards. No science could explain them, so they charged me with discovering their secrets. It was for that reason they allowed me to keep some sense of individuality, rather than just making me a mindless drone. It was also for that reason that the president is now dead. As well you know from Seto, I wouldn't like being pushed around by nobodies. Anyway, I am proud to say I have mastered the god cards, and they are under my control now. Oh, I seem to be just talking, talking, talking, pray tell me Joey, why did you come here?"

"I... I came to defeat the president. I was gonna take him out and free the city from his rule..."

"Ah yes yes of course. Ever the noble one, Joey. I daresay I've beaten you to the punch, then. I suppose, with the president gone, and those three so-called master duelists out of commission, that I'm the one in charge now. I could duel you right now, you know. I could crush you like a bug when you're unprepared, right this moment." He gently stroked the duel disk on his arm. "But, the Yugi in me says no, that's not right at all. I believe that you should get a fair chance to win, Joey. So, I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to let you and your friends leave here, and go back to your little underground hideout. I'll give you one day to prepare. You and I shall duel in the very centre of Domino. Just you, me, and the wastelands around us. We'll duel at dawn, it seems most appropriate. If you don't show up Joey, I'll simply hunt you down and destroy you, no second chances. What do you think?"

"Yeah, fine. I'll take ya on. Will you set this land free if I take you down?"

"Oh absolutely. I'm the very last line of defense for this company. If I'm defeated, KaibaCorp is yours to do what you will with. However..." his duel disk snapped into duel mode. "I daresay you won't be defeating me. Have a little taste of what is to come Joey!"

He drew a card and summoned it. In a flash of blue and white, Joey didn't even have time to say something before a dragon engulfed him in a wave of white lightning. Joey felt no pain, only terror. The world darkened around him.

Joey woke up, staring at a familiar ceiling. He was back in Tristan's guest room at the training hall. He quickly jumped out of bed and ran into the main room. Everyone was there waiting, all with a confused look on their faces. Tea spoke out first.

"Oh Joey!" she jumped up and hugged him fiercely. "We were all so worried. All we saw was a bright light, and then we were all outside the KaibaCorp building and you were unconscious. What happened?"

Joey sighed. "Well, it's gonna be a little hard to explain."

"Red Eyes, destroy his X Head Cannon and the rest of his lifepoints!"

The black dragon reared up it's frightful head and released a torrent of red lightning. The lone X Head Cannon had no chance against the attack and was destroyed, taking with it the last of the owner's lifepoints. The Red Eyes disappeared and Joey stepped down from the small platform. The computer that had been his opponent spoke out loud;

"Duel complete. Joey Wheeler's final lifepoints: 5400. Total time: 20 minutes, 32 seconds. Previous record held by Yugi Moto with a time of 11 minutes 51 seconds and 8000 lifepoints."

Joey sighed. "Man, I've been dueling at the top level for hours and I still haven't even come close to beating Yugi's record."

Mokuba stood behind him with his laptop, crunching the numbers from the duels. "Your performance had been steadily decreasing over the last hour. I suggest a break."

"Yeah, I hear that."

"Joey... I know this is going to sound pretty pessimistic of me, but your chances of defeating someone with the decks and skills of both Yugi and Seto is pretty much nonexistent."

Joey nodded. "I know. But I've gotta give it my best shot, ya know? Otherwise what kind of a duelist would I be?"

"I realize it would go against everything you stand for. And, I also know there's no way I can talk you out of it, even if it is suicide. So, I guess all I can say is good luck."

"Mokuba, I know it looks bad, and believe me I'm not so sure about my chances either. But if I don't try then I'll be letting everyone down. Besides, if I don't duel, we won't be much better off anyway."

Joey slid his duel disk off his arm. He had been wearing it so long that it had left marks on his arm. He handed it to Mokuba and began slowly wandering towards the infirmary where Yugi and Kaiba were being treated. "I only have until tomorrow morning. Then I have to take on someone who's a combination of both Yugi and Kaiba. One of them would be bad enough but both... not to mention that he apparently has control over the..." Joey's mind flashed back to Battle City, where the Winged Dragon of Ra had become Joey's new definition of pain and fear. He could still feel what it was like to have his mind and soul burned. Joey shuddered. "I'm going to have to figure out a way to beat the God cards on top of everything else he can throw at me."

Joey stepped into the infirmary. Yugi lay on a bed, his small body looked to be frozen in time, the only indication that he was still alive was the beeping machine next to him. Kaiba was on the other side of the small room in a similar condition. Joey gently brushed a stray hair away from Yugi's face and sighed. He suddenly felt something soft touch his hand, for a crazy minute he thought it was Yugi. Joey turned to see Tea gently holding his hand. She leaned in and gave Yugi a small kiss on his forehead. Both were silent a moment, as they looked upon their friend as he rested.

It was Tea who spoke first. "Joey, I'm starting to wish that we had never attacked the KaibaCorp building."

Joey's eyes widened, but he stayed silent.

"Before we came here, I had never really been alone. I've always had all my family, my friends. I'd made new friends, I even had a secret crush back then..." Her eyes flickered over to the Millennium Puzzle firm in Yugi's grip for just a second. "But, all that changed when we got here. All of a sudden the only one I had left was Mai, and she was taken away from me. I couldn't handle it, I was depressed, I hid behind the mask of the group Mai had started. I didn't even want to talk to Mokuba, I was afraid if I got close to him then he would be taken away too. Then, you showed up out of nowhere. You brought us all together again, you even rescued Mai and got Yugi and Kaiba back." Her eyes began welling with tears. "If you were all taken away from me again by this horrible monster, I don't know what I'd do. Losing everyone once was bad enough, I can't handle it again. If we hadn't gone on this quest to destroy KaibaCorp then at least I wouldn't have to lose everyone all over again. I can't..."

Tea's words were cut off as Joey drew her near. He ran his hand through her strange electrical wiring hair, trying to comfort her. He embraced her and held her close. Her breathing slowed and she leaned softly against him. They held each other a moment, and she looked up into his eyes. Neither of them spoke any words.

Words were no longer necessary.

Joey awoke some time later. For a crazy moment he felt like he was back home in his own bed. A quick look around reassured him that it was definitely still the guest room in Tristan's quarters. The room didn't seem so grungy anymore, in fact it seemed positively divine. For that matter, he was practically glowing. He stretched his muscles and scratched his shirtless chest. Looking down he noticed for the first time his body was covered in scars; a human roadmap of the deadly duels he had engaged in. He looked over to see Tea coming out of the small bathroom, wearing only a towel. She smiled at Joey and lay down next to him. Her own body was a testament to the harsh realities, patches of painful looking metal were clamped onto her skin. She traced her fingers along his scars lovingly, which accidentally instigated a tickle fight. For the first time in a long time, they both felt like kids again. They had completely forgotten about the terrors that awaited both of them. Their peace could not last, however. Joey lamented this, as Tea later lay next to him asleep. He slowly got out of the bed to avoid waking her and he crept out of his room.

"I need to get in some last minute practicing. I have to be absolutely ready for anything. Everyone is counting on me." He cast one more glance back to the bedroom. "She's counting on me."

He headed towards the training area and approached the dueling computers. He punched up a training program, but quickly realized he had forgotten his duel disk.

"Forgot something?"

Joey spun around. "Oh Mai! Yeah I guess I did..." Mai handed him the duel disk and his deck. "Heh, thanks."

Mai shook her head. "It's a darn good thing you've got Tea to look after you now, because I can't look after you forever."

Joey blushed. "What are ya talkin' about Mai?" He laughed nervously, doing a rather poor job of covering up the fact. "How could she possibly know about that?" he thought.

"The walls in that room aren't the most soundproof, hun. I think anyone who was even remotely close to your room know your little secret. It wasn't too big of a secret anyway, the two of you have gotten pretty lovey dovey in the last little while."

Joey sighed and hung his head. "I dunno about that..."

"Oh buck up, you look like a lost little puppy now. It's not like it's a bad thing that you and Tea are together now, is it?"

"No. Well... no. But I can't help wondering... if maybe it only happened because she was lonely in the past, or maybe..."

"Hun, I can't believe I'm about to say this to you, but you are thinking way too much."

Joey raised an eyebrow. "Somethin' funny about me thinkin' about things?"

Mai sighed. "Okay, bad joke. The fact is, Tea has been head over heels for you long before you showed up and started being the hero of this little circus. She had realized long ago that she and that other Yugi weren't meant to be, he doesn't even really physically exist as I understand it. Her caring about you has nothing to do with you busting duelists left and right."

Joey smiled. "Candid as ever, eh Mai? Well, I just hope she still feels the same way if I do get us out of this mess..."

Mai grabbed Joey by the shoulders and spun him to face the dueling computer. "I think you mean WHEN you get us out of this mess. You've still got some work ahead of you though, so get on it."

Joey nodded. "You got it!"

Joey practiced against the duel computer for a while, making some final adjustments to his deck. "Okay, this deck is the best I could do. It's got everything I need to counter both Yugi and Kaiba's strategies. I just hope it's enough." Joey was very energetic all of a sudden, like he was excited and scared at the same time. "I can't believe I'm actually going to duel Yugi and Kaiba. This is really freaky. I need to burn off some steam..." His eyes wandered towards the exercise area. "That'll do."

He wandered around the gym for a little while, before he entered a familiar area. Wooden posts were sticking out of the ground and they had sandbags tied to them.

"It's a punching post, stranger. You test the power and skill of your punches on it." A voice from behind him spoke. Joey whirled around to see Tristan standing behind him, looking very pleased with himself. "That's what I said to you back when you first got here. You wound up showing off the way you always do and you nearly broke your hand."

Joey smirked. "As I recall I also showed you up, tough guy."

Tristan shook his head. "Not even close, dude. But hey, that's why I'm here to help." Tristan handed Joey a pair of weights. Joey took them and began working them. "You've gotta be in good shape for the big battle. Plus, big muscles are a hit with the ladies."

"And I suppose you're the big expert on what the ladies like, eh?"

Tristan shrugged. "Come to think of it, it seems that you already have that ground covered. You've had all the bases covered too, eh? If ya know what I mean?"

Joey blushed. "Rrrgh. Not very subtle on that one, Tristan. I guess that means you heard..."

"Ohh believe me, I heard." Tristan gave him a thumbs up, and Joey rolled his eyes. "But seriously, that's great man. You two look great together."

Joey smiled. "Yeah I know, it feels really awesome."

"But you're not entirely sure if it'll last, right? If we get back to our time and things don't stay the same between you guys?"

Joey's eyes widened. "I shoulda known my oldest friend would be able to guess what I'm thinkin'.

"Well, I'm not the most knowledgeable on the subject. Figuring out a woman's heart is tough enough as it is, but now we've got all this dark magic business happening. Will any of us remember any of this when we go back? Will we even look the way we do now? Beats the heck out of me. I guess all I can say is don't burn any bridges, ya know? If we get back to our time and it's like none of this ever happened, well, better to have loved and lost right? And besides, Tea fell for you because you were just being yourself, if it happened once it'll happen again."

Joey nodded and handed back the weights. "Thanks man. I think I'm gonna visit Yugi before I head off to bed tonight."

"Sure thing dude. Oh, should I have Mai bring some of Tea's clothes to your room? I'm guessing she doesn't have any in there at the moment..."

Joey blushed and cast one last "Shut up!" through gritted teeth as he left. "Man, Tristan can sure make some lame jokes. All those muscles have gone to his head."

It wasn't long before Joey was standing before his fallen friend. The infirmary was dark, what little light existed was cast from small health monitors beside the bed, producing bizarre shadows through the room. Yugi's condition appeared much more grave in the shadows, Joey nearly turned the lights on in spite of himself, but held himself back. Yugi needed his rest. Joey turned his eyes towards the second patient, Kaiba, in a bed next to Yugi's. Joey was awash with mixed feelings. Regret, pity, and heartbreak clashed with smugness, self-satisfaction, and mirth. He nearly leapt out of his skin as a voice from the darkness spoke out suddenly

"I bet you must feel pretty big right now, seeing the mighty Seto Kaiba fallen like this." It was Mokuba. He never left his brother's side for even a moment, he had even demanded his meals be sent to him.

Joey shook his head. His voice cracked slightly under his heavy emotions as he spoke quietly. "No, not really. Actually, I don't really know how I feel." He looked the older Kaiba over once. He was no less beaten and bruised than Yugi, but he could not bring himself to feel as badly for him as he did his friend. "It's weird. Any other time I'd have jumped to see Kaiba like this, stripped of his dignity, battered and broken. All the better if I could'a done it myself. But seeing it now, the reality of it, I almost can't stand it."

Mokuba made no move, in the entire time he had been there he had rarely moved a muscle. "It is in tragedy and pain where we discover who a person really is. How they handle it says a lot about them. You've experienced enough of both for yourself, and you fought through it and persevered You kept your promise and brought Yugi and Seto back. And now you're seeing the other side of the same coin, how you react to other people in pain. You look upon your friend and your enemy with the same feelings, more or less. It's less who has gotten hurt, and more the fact that someone has gotten hurt at all, making no distinction based on your personal feelings. The fact that innocent people have been manipulated and injured is all you need, and you are ready to fight back no matter what the cost." Mokuba rose, his stiff joints cracking from inactivity, and turned to face Joey. "I can imagine noone better to defeat this evil."

Joey nodded. "Of course, you realize that once this is over, I'm not gonna go any easier on your brother."

Mokuba smiled. "Nor would I expect he would treat you any different. In fact, having been saved by his sworn enemy, he might go harder on you."

Joey shrugged. "Fair enough. Anyway, big day tomorrow, I'd better hit the hay." He cast one last look at Yugi, for a moment he could have sworn he saw a smile on his youthful face.

"Good idea. Give Tea my approval when you get there, you two look rather nice together."

Joey nearly tripped over. "Man, word travels fast around here eh?"

Mokuba shrugged. "It doesn't take a genius to see the chemistry there. Going by the numbers it's really not the least likely thing to have happened, in fact, all things considered, it probably should have happened sooner."

Joey put his hands over his ears. "Man, I am NOT having a conversation about matchmaking with a Kaiba brother. Goodnight." With that, Joey hastily made his way back to his room and locked the door. Tea was still in his bed, she sat up still half asleep, paying no mind to her state of undress. Joey stared a moment, then shook his head to regain his composure. He returned his duel disk and deck to their resting place on the table, and slowly slid into the bed. Both of the bed's occupants were silent a moment, until Tea spoke up, she gently squeezed his arm.

"Joey, whatever happens, just remember I love you."

"I love you too Tea. That's why I can't possibly lose tomorrow." With his words, Tea fell back into a peaceful slumber. He took one last moment to feel her warmth next to him before succumbing to the darkness.

Morning came all too quickly. Although, one could only tell it was morning by looking at a clock. Even if they could see outside, the sky was engulfed in a perpetual darkness, like any other day. However, today was not quite the same as any other day. Today a single beam of light broke through the twisted black clouds, perhaps a sign of a brighter future. But what stood within the light was no angel of hope, rather, a harbinger of destruction. The twisted Kaiba/Yugi creature stood in the very center of the light, beckoning his opponent forth. His signal would not go unanswered, as Joey approached him alone and unafraid. His friends watched from afar, invisible to the naked eye of the duelists. Their match would go unhindered, as it would dictate the very future of the land on which they would fight. To the victor would go the destiny of the world. May it be Joey Wheeler.

Looks like the end is drawing near. Will Joey win, and the world be thrown into unending darkness? Even if he wins, what remains for Joey but a destroyed city? Next chapter coming a lot sooner than the last one.


End file.
